The Daphne City Council on Monday approved a donation of $255,000 to an organization that protects coastal waters and restores local environments.

The money will go to the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program (Mobile NEP), an organization that Daphne has worked with over the past decade to restore the D’Olive watershed due to excessive erosion and sedimentation caused by population growth.

The population of Daphne increased by about 27% between 2010 and 2020, according to the U.S. Census.

“(The organization) has been very beneficial to our community through their work in preventing stormwater erosion and sedimentation, and we felt like they deserved a little bit more than what we had been contributing,” said Councilman Benjamin Hughes. “The money is gonna go to enhancing and improving the environmental infrastructure within the community.”

There is no specific project the money is set to go towards, but the council’s resolution names the D’Olive Creek Watershed restoration and other projects “related to creating a clean water future for the city and the Alabama coast.”

Mobile NEP’s website lists the following as goals of the D’Olive restoration project:

• Reduce upstream sediment inputs into the Lake Forest Lake/D’Olive/Tiawasee system.
• Reduce ongoing sediment loads into D’Olive Bay and the Mobile Bay estuary.
• Remediate and restore past effects of these sediment loads, including lake restoration.
• Mitigate future impacts of development in the watersheds, where feasible.

The resolution comes after the city received a letter from Mobile NEP requesting additional funds for their projects.

“The city council got the letter and thought that it was prudent and it was a good use of funds to continue to fund those projects in the Mobile NEP,” said Mayor Robin LeJeune. “We’ll let the Mobile NEP make those decisions on what they’re going to use the money for.”

All of the council members who attended the meeting on Monday night voted in favor of the resolution: Hughes, Steve Olen, Joel Coleman, Benjamin Hughes and Angie Phillips.

The city of Daphne is the organization’s second biggest contributor, coming in just barely behind Mobile, according to a report from the Mobile NEP. Daphne already donated $255,000 over the past four years, and the latest contribution brings the city’s donations to over $500,000.

Daphne is giving the Mobile NEP about $123,600 from the city’s allotment of funds from The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, also known as the COVID-19 Stimulus Package. The rest of the donation, about $132,400, will come from the city’s general fund.