More than $94 million are now being used to fight coastal erosion.
The Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act or GOMESA was created in order to address the long-standing problem.
The money was dispersed across the state’s coastal parishes. 7News went to Cameron Parish to meet Assistant Administrator Darrell Williams to find how the parish is using their money.
“We have chosen to do shoreline protection projects,” Williams said.
Williams is referring to the GOMESA Shoreline Protection project. Rocks will be lined across the shore in hopes to build up the previously eroded land.
Williams explained where the money was coming from.
“It’s a federal allocation that’s been designated by Congress,” Williams said. “It’s an annual allocation of money that’s derived from off-shore state lease oil lease activity.”
It’s during these past two years that parishes have seen the biggest impact. This time Cameron parish got roughly $1.2 million.
“We use the annual allocation from GOMESA to pay back those bonds over a 20 year period of time,” Williams said.
The rocks will be placed along Rutherford, Long Beach, and Little Florida. Williams says they hope to have the project completed by October of 2020.
