The unexpected windfall of $8.89 million in leftover claims money from private damage settlements with Halliburton and Transocean subsidiaries will be used by Louisiana to fund the construction of the Maurepas Swamp freshwater diversion project. This project aims to improve storm defenses and revitalize the ecosystem.
Louisiana has received a surprising windfall of $8.89 million in leftover claims money from private damage settlements with Halliburton and Transocean subsidiaries. This money stems from their roles in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster and oil spill. The state’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority plans to use this money to help fund the construction of the Maurepas Swamp freshwater diversion project.
The Maurepas Swamp revitalization plans involve reconnecting the swamp west of New Orleans to the Mississippi River through a diversion channel. This project serves a dual purpose of improving storm defenses and revitalizing the ecosystem. The Maurepas Swamp freshwater diversion project will be built adjacent to the West Shore Lake Pontchartrain hurricane levee, which is currently under construction. It is considered as environmental mitigation for the levee project.
The $8.89 million windfall represents Louisiana’s 32% share of about $27 million that claims administrators were unable to distribute as part of dual settlements with Halliburton and Transocean. These settlements were approved in June 2016 and concluded this June. The total settlements with Halliburton and Transocean amounted to $1.24 billion, following a separate $7 billion settlement agreement between BP and private claimants in 2012.
The claimants in the Halliburton and Transocean settlements were divided into “new class” and “old class” categories. The “new class” members were eligible for damages caused to real or personal property, as well as to commercial fishers. This category also included groups that were not included in the original BP settlement, such as local governments, gaming, finance, insurance, real estate development, defense industries, and oil and gas entities. The “new class” category also included individuals and entities who had opted out of the original settlement. When all the payouts were completed, there was still $1.34 million left in the seafood-related claims subcategory authorized earlier to go to Gulf Coast states. Another subcategory in the “new class” included real and personal property claims, and $8.9 million remained in this category in June.
The “old class” members consisted of several hundred thousand businesses and individuals who had previously filed economic loss claims. Although authorized payments for this group totaled $337.6 million, about $17.4 million could not be distributed by the end of the claims process in June.
Claims administrators informed U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier, who has overseen all the BP spill-related settlement cases, that redistributing the leftover money among all the claimants could take another 36 months and would likely result in most class members receiving only $21 to $45 after attorneys’ fees were deducted. As a result, court-appointed claims administrator Carl Juneau recommended giving the money to the Gulf Coast states through the Gulf Coast Restoration Trust Fund. This fund was established to distribute civil Clean Water Act fine money from the spill.
In conclusion, Louisiana’s unexpected windfall of $8.89 million from private damage settlements with Halliburton and Transocean will be used to fund the Maurepas Swamp freshwater diversion project. This project aims to improve storm defenses and revitalize the ecosystem. The allocation of these funds will contribute to the restoration efforts in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
