About $3 million in grant money will go toward projects focused on coastal restoration and education, Gov. Phil Bryant announced late Thursday.

One project would remove sediment and debris from the sea floor of the Mississippi Sound while the other would establish an education and outreach program focused on restoration activities such as land conservation, habitat stewardship and water quality.

The approval comes on the heels of Gov. Bryant announcing 15 different coastal restoration projects earlier this week.

The grants–­one for $2.18 million and another for $750,000–were approved by the RESTORE Council, which consists of representatives from the five Gulf states and six federal agencies. It was established by the federal Resources and Ecosystems Sustainability, Tourist Opportunities, and Revived Economies of the Gulf Coast States (RESTORE) Act of 2012.

The RESTORE Act is one of a handful of pots of federal money that provide funding to the Gulf region to restore ecosystems and rebuild local economies damaged by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010.


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