Notice2026-03379
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Louisiana and Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Groups; Final Joint Restoration Plan and Environmental Assessment #1: Wetlands, Coastal, and Nearshore Habitats, Federally Managed Lands, Fish and Water Column Invertebrates, Sea Turtles, Submerged Aquatic Vegetation, and Birds Restoration of the Chandeleur Islands and Finding of No Significant Impact
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Published
February 20, 2026
Issuing agencies
Interior Department
Abstract
The natural resource trustee agencies for the Louisiana and Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Groups (the TIGs) have prepared and are making available to the public the Final Joint Restoration Plan and Environmental Assessment #1: Wetlands, Coastal, and Nearshore Habitats, Federally Managed Lands, Fish and Water Column Invertebrates, Submerged Aquatic Vegetation, Sea Turtles, and Birds Restoration of the Chandeleur Islands (Final RP/EA) and Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI). The Final RP/EA analyzes projects to partially restore resources injured in the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill. The Final RP/EA evaluates a reasonable range of six action alternatives under the Oil Pollution Act (OPA), including criteria set forth in the OPA natural resource damage assessment (NRDA) regulations, and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). A No Action alternative is also analyzed pursuant to NEPA. The total cost to implement the TIGs' two selected alternatives is approximately $372,000,000. The TIGs intend to allocate approximately $247,000,000 in DWH NRDA funds to implement the selected alternatives and the State of Louisiana is actively pursuing additional funding sources.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 91 Issue 34 (Friday, February 20, 2026)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 34 (Friday, February 20, 2026)]
[Notices]
[Pages 8266-8267]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2026-03379]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
[FWS-R4-ES-2025-N036; FVHC98220410150-XXX-FF04H00000]
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Louisiana and Open Ocean Trustee
Implementation Groups; Final Joint Restoration Plan and Environmental
Assessment #1: Wetlands, Coastal, and Nearshore Habitats, Federally
Managed Lands, Fish and Water Column Invertebrates, Sea Turtles,
Submerged Aquatic Vegetation, and Birds Restoration of the Chandeleur
Islands and Finding of No Significant Impact
AGENCY: Department of the Interior.
ACTION: Notice of availability.
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SUMMARY: The natural resource trustee agencies for the Louisiana and
Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Groups (the TIGs) have prepared and
are making available to the public the Final Joint Restoration Plan and
Environmental Assessment #1: Wetlands, Coastal, and Nearshore Habitats,
Federally Managed Lands, Fish and Water Column Invertebrates, Submerged
Aquatic Vegetation, Sea Turtles, and Birds Restoration of the
Chandeleur Islands (Final RP/EA) and Finding of No Significant Impact
(FONSI). The Final RP/EA analyzes projects to partially restore
resources injured in the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill. The Final
RP/EA evaluates a reasonable range of six action alternatives under the
Oil Pollution Act (OPA), including criteria set forth in the OPA
natural resource damage assessment (NRDA) regulations, and the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). A No Action alternative is also
analyzed pursuant to NEPA. The total cost to implement the TIGs' two
selected alternatives is approximately $372,000,000. The TIGs intend to
allocate approximately $247,000,000 in DWH NRDA funds to implement the
selected alternatives and the State of Louisiana is actively pursuing
additional funding sources.
ADDRESSES: Obtaining Documents: You may download the Final RP/EA and
FONSI at <a href="https://www.gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov/restoration-areas/louisiana">https://www.gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov/restoration-areas/louisiana</a>. Alternatively, you may request a USB flash drive containing
the Final RP/EA and FONSI (see FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Amy Mathis, at <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#4c2d213513212d3824253f0c2a3b3f622b233a"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="6e0f031731030f1a06071d2e08191d40090118">[email protected]</span></a> or
251-401-2172. Individuals in the United States who are deaf, deafblind,
hard of hearing, or have a speech disability may dial 711 (TTY, TDD, or
TeleBraille) to access telecommunications relay services. Individuals
outside the United States should use the relay services offered within
their country to make international calls to the point of contact in
the United States.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Introduction
On April 20, 2010, the mobile offshore drilling unit Deepwater
Horizon (DWH), which was drilling a well for BP Exploration and
Production, Inc. (BP), experienced a significant explosion, fire, and
subsequent sinking in the Gulf of America, resulting in the release of
millions of barrels of oil and other discharges into the Gulf. Under
the authority of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA; 33 U.S.C. 2701 et
seq.), designated Federal and State trustees, acting on behalf of the
public, assessed the injuries to natural resources and prepared the
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Final Programmatic Damage Assessment and
Restoration Plan and Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement
(Final PDARP/PEIS), and subsequent record of decision (ROD), which sets
forth the governance structure and process for DWH restoration planning
under the OPA's natural resource damage assessment (NRDA). On April 4,
2016, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of
Louisiana entered a consent decree resolving civil claims by the
Trustees against BP.
The Louisiana and Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group (TIG) is
composed of the State of Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration
Authority, Oil Spill Coordinator's Office, Departments of Environmental
Quality, Wildlife and Fisheries, and Natural Resources, the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Department of the
Interior (DOI), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The Open Ocean
TIG is composed of the EPA, DOI, NOAA, and the USDA. Each TIG selects
and implements restoration projects under that TIG's management
authority in accordance with the Consent Decree. The Final PDARP/PEIS,
ROD, Consent Decree, and information on the DWH Trustees can be found
at <a href="https://www.gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov/restoration-planning/gulf-plan">https://www.gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov/restoration-planning/gulf-plan</a>.
Background
On September 9, 2024, the Louisiana and Open Ocean TIGs posted a
``Notice of Intent to Conduct Restoration Planning'' on the NOAA Gulf
Spill Restoration website informing the public that they were beginning
to jointly write a draft restoration plan that would build upon
previous engineering and design work funded by DWH Trustees to evaluate
options for restoration of the Chandeleur Islands, addressing injuries
to multiple resources caused by the DWH oil spill. The Final Joint
Restoration Plan and Environmental Assessment #1: Wetlands, Coastal,
and Nearshore Habitats, Federally Managed Lands, Fish and Water Column
Invertebrates, Submerged Aquatic Vegetation, Sea Turtles, and Birds
Restoration of the Chandeleur Islands (Final RP/EA) includes a
reasonable range of six action alternatives and selects two preferred
alternatives for implementation.
The TIGs released the Draft Joint RP/EA #1 for public review and
comment and published a notice of availability in the Federal Register
on June 13, 2025 (90 FR 25072). To facilitate public understanding of
the document, the TIGs held a public webinar on June 26, 2025, during
which the public could make comments on the plan. After the public
review period closed on July 16, 2025, the TIGs reviewed the comments
received, prepared responses to those comments, finalized the plan, and
prepared a FONSI.
Overview of the Louisiana and Open Ocean TIGs' Final RP/EA
The Final RP/EA is being released in accordance with OPA, its
implementing NRDA regulations found in the Code of Federal Regulations
(CFR) at 15 CFR part 990, the National Environmental Policy Act (42
U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), the Final PDARP/PEIS, and the consent decree. The
Final RP/EA provides OPA and NEPA analyses for a reasonable range of
six action alternatives. Four of the action alternatives are habitat
improvement alternatives with various island restoration features,
including
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beach and dune fill, marsh fill, sand reservoirs, pocket marshes, and
feeder beaches. The selected habitat improvement alternative (Habitat
Restoration Alternative 5) would provide the greatest sustained gains
in beach/dune and marsh habitat acreage compared to the other habitat
improvement alternatives, is the most cost-effective, and has the
highest likelihood of success. The plan also analyzes implementation of
two fish and water column invertebrates (FWCI) restoration alternatives
for the Chandeleur Islands. The selected FWCI restoration alternative
(FWCI Alternative 2) involves education, engagement, and communication
with stakeholders to restore FWCI from human-use related impacts from
fishing, boating, and ecotourism. The non-preferred FWCI restoration
alternative would monitor fisheries populations through telemetry. The
selected FWCI restoration alternative would result in primary benefits
to injured species, as the engagement activities would promote
sustainable fishing practices for injured species that reduce bycatch
in commercial fisheries and would reduce post-release mortality in
recreational fisheries, among other benefits. FWCI Restoration
Alternative 3 would have resulted in only secondary, rather than
primary, benefits by providing monitoring data.
The total estimated cost to implement the two selected alternatives
is approximately $372,000,000, of which approximately $247,000,000 will
come from the following DWH NRDA restoration type allocations:
<bullet> Louisiana TIG Wetlands, Coastal, and Nearshore Habitats:
$150,000,000;
<bullet> Louisiana TIG Habitat Projects on Federally Managed Lands:
$25,693,273;
<bullet> Louisiana TIG Submerged Aquatic Vegetation: $22,000,000;
<bullet> Louisiana TIG Birds: $30,000,000;
<bullet> Louisiana TIG Sea Turtles: $4,000,000;
<bullet> Open Ocean TIG Birds: $5,000,000; and
<bullet> Open Ocean TIG Fish and Water Column Invertebrates: up to
$10,000,000.
Administrative Record
The documents comprising the administrative record for the Final
RP/EA can be viewed electronically at <a href="https://www.doi.gov/deepwaterhorizon/adminrecord">https://www.doi.gov/deepwaterhorizon/adminrecord</a> under folder 6.5.5.2.
Authority
The authority for this action is the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (33
U.S.C. 2701 et seq.), its implementing Natural Resource Damage
Assessment regulations found at 15 CFR part 990, and the National
Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.).
Mary Josie Blanchard,
Department of the Interior, Director, Gulf Coast Restoration.
[FR Doc. 2026-03379 Filed 2-19-26; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4333-15-P
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