FOR RELEASE: June 8, 1995                 CONTACT: Lee Scurry
                                               (202) 208-3983
                                               Barney Congdon
                                               (504) 736-2595

                  MMS CONTINUES AGREEMENT WITH ALABAMA 
                  TOWARD RESTORATION OF DAUPHIN ISLAND

     The U.S. Department of the Interior's Minerals Management
Service (MMS) awarded $57,500 to the University of Alabama to
develop a demonstration project using offshore sand resources for
restoration of Dauphin Island, MMS officials announced today. 

     "This funding will provide for the first year of a possible
three-year cooperative study to determine the feasibility of
restoring the severely eroding Dauphin Island by using sand from
federal waters," said MMS Director Cynthia Quarterman. 

     The study will culminate in scientific and engineering
recommendations for island restoration.  Sedimentary and
erosional regimes will be used to model and analyze environmental
conditions at the offshore resource site, along island beaches
and across nearshore.

     "Since 1991, three cooperative studies have been completed
with Alabama," said Quarterman.  "Results have led to selection
of a promising resource site located 4 to 8 miles off the
southeast coast of Dauphin Island.  Analyses indicate that about
30 million cubic yards of sand are present, and it's clean and
suitable for restoration."

     Including these funds, MMS has provided more than $175,000
to Alabama since 1991 for the study of offshore sand resources
and coastal restoration needs.  Under the cooperative agreements,
Alabama has matched these funds on a dollar-for-dollar basis.    

Similar efforts to evaluate marine mineral resources, including
other non-energy minerals, in federal waters have been initiated
with other states in the Gulf of Mexico and on the East Coast. 
MMS's Office of International Activities and Marine Minerals
(INTERMAR) is responsible for managing sand and other non-energy
mineral resources in federal waters on the Outer Continental
Shelf. For more information contact INTERMAR at (703) 787-1300.

     MMS is the federal agency that manages the nation's natural
gas, oil and other mineral resources on the Outer Continental
Shelf, and collects and disburses about $4 billion yearly in
revenues from offshore federal mineral leases and from onshore
mineral leases on federal and Indian lands.

                          --MMS--