Escambia County will host the first public meeting for the Bayou Chico Contaminated Sediment Remediation Project at 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 8,. The meeting will be held in conjunction with the regularly scheduled Marine Advisory Committee meeting at the Escambia County Central Office Complex, located at 3363 W. Park Place.
The intent of the meeting is to share the results of data collected to date, outline the proposed next steps and solicit public input on proposed process. The presentation will also be posted on the county website following the meeting at MyEscambia.com/open-governmen
Written comments may be submitted via email to BayouChicoTeam@myescambia.com by close of business Friday, Sept. 2, 2022. Responses to written comments received by the deadline will also be posted to the project page.
Data collection for the project has been ongoing since summer 2021. Sediment quantity and quality data are now available. Planning for the next phase of data collection is underway. The project will use the data collected to develop a series of remedial strategies that will be considered for future implementation. Upon selection of the remedial strategy, the project will be designed and permitted for implementation.
The project is made possible from a recently awarded $1.1 million RESTORE Pot 3 grant from the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council and Gulf Consortium to the county. This grant award allows for complete sediment analysis, design and permitting. This grant also leverages a $330,000 RESTORE Pot 2 grant received from Florida Department of Environmental Protection to assist with design.
A historic working waterfront, sediments in Bayou Chico have long been degraded by legacy contaminates resulting from timber treatment operations, shipbuilding and untreated storm-water runoff, among other factors. The project builds on significant investment made since the 1990s by numerous partners and stakeholders, including Escambia County, the City of Pensacola and Emerald Coast Utilities Authority, to address stormwater and sanitary sewer concerns. Once implemented, the remediation project is intended to improve sediment and water quality, restore benthic invertebrate habitat, and enhance the economic and recreational opportunities across the bayou.