One day, a $600,000 check appeared in Baldwin County’s mailbox.

After a few phone calls and some puzzled looks from county administrators, Budget Director Ron Cink had an answer.

It was the first installment of the county’s share of money from a newly created revenue-sharing model called the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act, GOMESA for short.

The federal act, passed in 2006, allowed communities in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas to receive a portion of the revenue generated by oil and gas production off of their shorelines in the Gulf of Mexico.

Since then, the county has received more than $30 million to put towards projects that otherwise would have taken decades to fund through conventional means or may even have been left undone. County and city administrators consider it a game-changer in improving life along the Gulf Coast.

“These are some really, really good projects that benefit all the citizens of Baldwin County,” Cink said.

Projects, in fact, that benefit anyone who visits, lives or sails by here.

GOMESA funds contributed to Intracoastal Waterway access construction. Parks in Spanish Fort, Foley and Fairhope have all received hundreds of thousands to expand and improve. Hundreds of miles of dirt roads have been paved by GOMESA money.

The catch is that federal statute mandates that every project must be environmental in nature and address water quality issues or mitigate the impacts of offshore drilling.

“That sounds terribly boring, but the paving of dirt roads is incredibly important for the environment,” Cink said. “When it rains that red clay runs into the ditch and ends up in a stream and then out to the Gulf. By paving you’re significantly lessening the amount of sediment going into the estuary program.”

Last fall Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey and representatives from across city, county and state governments gathered to cut the ribbon on the boat launch at the intracoastal waterway – a multi-year, $19 million project that was a joint effort made possible with GOMESA funds from the state and Baldwin County.

Baldwin County’s share of the money skyrocketed several years ago when Sen. Chris Elliott began making the case that the money, should be spent in the counties that touch the water – specifically Baldwin and Mobile.

Over the years local leaders were frustrated when the funds were divided among legislators who found ways to legally spend the money in their districts, but the result rarely trickled downstream into Alabama’s complicated and widespread estuary system, one of the most diverse bodies of water in the nation.

Now the state receives a portion of the funds as do Mobile and Baldwin Counties. County commissioners divvy up the money each year among projects submitted by municipalities and private organizations.

In 2023 Baldwin County will receive $4.7 million, nearly a million more than last year.

The state will receive $39.8 million and Mobile county will receive $5.3 million. The $49.7 million total allocated to Alabama and its counties is a 43% increase from what the state received last year.

There are no mandated deadlines to use the money, which is why multi-year projects can utilize the funds from several deposits. The state and counties can also combine funds, as they did to purchase the land and build The Launch at ICW.

Chris Blankenship, commissioner of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, leads the state’s effort to identify projects that can best benefit from the annual windfall.

“Commissioner Blankenship has done a magnificent job of handling the state money and continues to do so. We greatly appreciate his guidance and help and support,” Cink said.

The decision to allow companies to work off the
shorelines comes with consequences however, Cink said.

“You always stand a chance there will be a blowout and we could have a disaster like we did with Deep Water Horizon,” he said. “But when it’s all said and done, it’s done an awful lot to enhance the quality of life and the environment associated with these coastal counties.”

“But no. It’s definitely not free money,” Cink said.