MONEY

Five years after BP debacle, local claims continue

LAURA RUANE
LRUANE@NEWS-PRESS.COM
FILE - In this April 21, 2010 file photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, fire boat response crews spray water on the burning BP Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig. An April 20, 2010 explosion at the platform killed 11 men, and the subsequent leak released an estimated 172 million gallons of petroleum into the gulf. (U.S. Coast Guard via AP, File)

A fiery oil-drilling rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, 11 dead.

And, in the months that followed, grim images flashed across the globe, showing tar-ball-dotted beaches and oil-slicked, sick and dying marine life.

None of these horrors from Deepwater Horizon disaster actually touched Southwest Florida's coast, which is hundreds of miles from the explosion site.

Five years after spill, Gulf waiting for recovery money

Public misconceptions, however, proliferated. As BP's Macondo well continued to leak for months, advance bookings at hotels and resorts bookings far from the actual damage, dropped off more sharply than usual, even for the slower summer months.

This had a ripple effect throughout Southwest Florida, where tourism accounts for employment of an estimated one in five people in Lee and Collier counties.

Five years have passed since the blast. While many businesses substantially rebounded during the nation's economic recovery, an unknown number are seeking at least partial compensation.

Many more people might be eligible.

One avenue remains for most kinds of private businesses and individuals: a class-action lawsuit settlement with June 8 final deadline for applying.

"I hope people will get off the fence. I think Southwest Florida has millions of dollars in gross claims that are still out there," said Fort Myers attorney Frank Aloia, who's assisted dozens of companies – mostly small businesses with no direct ties to tourism.

As of Thursday, the Deepwater Horizon Claims Center reports:

•Settlement payments to claimants in Lee County totaled just over $83 million; and

•Payments in Collier County topped $29.6 million.

Altogether, the claims center has paid out about $5 billion since starting to process claims in June 2012, said New Orleans-based spokesman Nick Gagliano.

That makes the Southwest Florida payments look puny, but Gagliano noted the settlement covers claimants in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and portions of Florida and Texas.

BP reports it has spent $28 billion on the oil disaster, including the response, cleanup, early restoration work and claims payments.

Class-action settlement

Tamara Pigott

The class-action settlement that's playing out excludes state and local governments from making claims. Lee and Collier's county governments filed other, separate lawsuit, which are yet unresolved.

Shortly after the oil spill, area tourism promoters saw their bed tax collections dwindle, and rushed to reassure potential visitors worldwide our beaches were unblemished.

Lee charges a 5 percent tax on rentals of short-term accommodations. The county's tourist tax audit department estimated tourist tax revenue lost from the Deepwater Horizon disaster at more than $836,000.

"Lee County experienced a big upswing in tourism at the start of 2010. But business dropped off dramatically immediately after the Deepwater Horizon event and didn't begin to recover until after the leaking well was capped," said Tamara Pigott, executive director, Lee County Visitor & Convention Bureau.

"By then, we had lost not only a lot of bookings, but also the momentum we began at the start of the year. Recovering from that double impact was difficult at best," Pigott said.

Lee VCB pulled $750,000 from its own bed tax reserves to run a television commercial campaign assuring consumers local beaches were "still pristine."

Lee's visitor bureau ultimately got two BP-related grants, totaling $1 million.

In Collier

Collier tourism promoters weren't so fortunate.

Jack Wert

At some point, the county got $125,000 from a multi-state lawsuit settlement, said Jack Wert, executive director of the Naples, Marco Island, and Everglades Convention & Visitors Bureau..

That amount didn't begin to compensate for lost bed tax revenue or for other spending such as emergency management's purchase of booms in case oil actually did reach the local coast.

Collier's CVB filed a claim for more than $390,000 on three different occasions — and struck out each time,

That Collier claim covered more than $281,700 in estimated lost tourist tax revenue and more than $108,700 in emergency bed tax reserves the visitor bureau spent on previously unscheduled advertising "to overcome the misinformation out there," Wert said.

At Red Coconut RV Resort on Fort Myers Beach, co-owner Fran Myers initially held back from filing a claim: "I thought, there's no oil on our beaches – and I felt so bad for the people in Louisiana and the (Florida) Panhandle."

About two years ago, Myers changed her mind, realizing her business income wasn't what it could have been in the months following the oil rig explosion.

And, as a member of the Tourist Development Council, she'd heard research indicating that at one point, a significant percentage of potential European visitors mistakenly "thought the whole coast of Florida" was oil-soaked.

To date, Myers hasn't been notified whether her claim is eligible for payment, although "several months ago, we had to submit more paperwork."

What would she do with settlement money?

"We've been thinking about putting in a swimming pool at the park."

Said Myers: "I'm not counting on the money."