Mobile River Loop

Forecast for the day was choppy conditions in Mobile Bay. Sometimes wrong forecasts are good.

As always, dredging Mobile River to keep it deep enough for ships is a never ending process.

Mobile Skyline.

Mobile Convention Center.

Nor Goliath, an offshore servicing rig for the oil industry capable of lifting about 2000 Tons. That would be about 4 million pounds.

BW Pioneer is a FPSO ship. FPSO stands for: Floating Production, Storage, Offloading vessel. This ship, capable of processing 80,000 barrels of oil per day, had been working off Lousiana at a depth of about 2600 meters (1.6 miles) making it the deepest water operation of any FPSO in the world. 

http://www.tparkerhost.com/not-average-vessel-bw-pioneer-fpso/

Memorial Day Weekend and the USS Alabama go well together. The historic battleship had a lot of visitors this weekend.

Interstate I-10.

Dog River

Sailboat about to go under the Dog River bridge into Mobile Bay.

Sunset on placid Dog River.

South Fork Deer River

South Fork Deer River is one of only a few waterways in Mobile County you never hear me bitching about for being polluted with trash. Why not?

First, it is outside the City of Mobile jurisdictional limits. Secondly, it has no major State road crossings. Thirdly, it is in a rural area lacking any major storm water drainage system. Because of those reasons one can paddle the relatively short South Fork Deer River and see almost no shoreline trash. If there is no trash pollution to document there can be no complaints.

Much of South Fork Deer River's shoreline is salt marsh grasses.

There are some strange things to see on the horizon.

Quiet backwaters of upper South Fork Deer River.

One of the two bridges you will pass under.

This is one way to make a private boat launch canal off limits to public boat and kayak traffic.

Crazy Coot paddling in the river.

One of the ships you might see while crossing the trash polluted Theodore Industrial Canal  to get to the entrance of South Fork Deer River.

08/25/2013 - Theodore Industrial Canal

1) A heron takeoff is not always a beautiful sight.

2) A little alligator left in Dog River.

3) Old gray beard.

4) Industrial drainage site into Theodore Industrial Canal.

5) The end of Summer is near. Hahahaha.

6) The wind went still as the sailboats started going out to Mobile Bay.

08/20/2013 - Mobile Bay

1) Sunrise at Arlington Park

2) A kayaker fishing down at Dog River Bridge

3) My what big eyes you have.

4) US Coast Guard buzzing the Kayak.

5) Dog River Bridge

6) I heard the waves coming before seeing them. The waves were compliments of a passing ship.

7) The western shoreline of Mobile is rather unattractive.

8) It was so humid this morning my glasses stayed fogged up.

9) Rumble in the distance - better head back to Arlington Park.

10) Whew!  Made it back in the knick of time.

07/04/2013 - Independence Day on Dog River

Launch: Home.

Launch Cost: Free.

Destination: Dog River watershed looking for Sea Cows also known as Manatees.

Distance: 15 miles.

Pedal time: 5 hours.

Weather: Temp in the 80s, very light winds, partly sunny. River current minimal. Water temperature in the 80s degrees. A beautiful day.

1) Manatees coming up for a breath of fresh air.

2) Another Manatee.

3) It was exciting to see there are still a few alligators left in Dog River.

4) Happy 4th of July! Cute little boat.

5) Family 4th of July Fun on Dog River. What a pretty smile.

6) A clump of Crinum lilies also known as Seven Sisters, Swamp lily, Southern swamp lily, and String lily.

7) Railroad Bridge only navigable at high tide.

8) Upper McCullough Bayou turns into a cement drainage ditch north of I-10.

08/01/2012 - Big Creek Lake - Mobile's Drinking Water - Enjoy your Cancer

Three months ago I sent out complaints to MAWSS officials about garbage in Mobile's drinking water supply reservoir - Big Creek Lake. Today's kayak trip was to see if MAWSS had removed any of the garbage from their shoreline in the past 90 days. Hwy 98 right-of-way might have been cleared of trash because it looked cleaner this time, but not the shoreline of Big Creek Lake. MAWSS property shorelines were unchanged and still littered with garbage.

What is in your drinking water? Let's take a look at what I saw today.

Header image is a photo of the shoreline of Mobile's drinking water supply. Despite complaints, no one will remove the garbage, some of which might be cancer causing.

Nice sunrise on Big Creek Lake.

The trash north of Highway 98 appears to be sparse but looks can be deceiving.

Part the shoreline shrubs and take a peek behind them. Here are two oil containers. Are they empty?

When metal spray cans rust, whatever is left in them goes into your drinking water.

This is Mobile's source of drinking water with garbage still scattered along the shoreline. Lance LeFleur, director of ADEM recently sent Alabama Senator Richard Shelby a letter stating, "...the release of trash to the sewer system stems from improper disposal by local residences and commercial entities. The individuals and businesses share in the responsibility to keep Mobile's rivers clean." 

Regardless of who is responsible for trashing our drinking water supply and other area rivers, it is criminal to let the garbage, some of which is harmful, continue to rot in the water and on the shoreline when you know it is there. No wonder why they call it ADEM - it stands for Alabama Department of Environmental Malignancy. ADEM's inability to do anything about the garbage rotting in Mobile County waterways needs to be investigated by the EPA. Please don't misunderstand, I'm not wanting ADEM to clean it up. ADEM has the authority to issue fines to violators of the Clean Water Act. One small fine one or two years ago has not gotten area watersheds clean.

I saw several railroad ties coated with Creosote floating in Big Creek south of the RR track today. The EPA says this about creosote, "Do not use where it may come into direct or indirect contact with public drinking water." The Railroad may bear responsibility but if they don't remove their cancer causing garbage from our drinking water, who will? That is the problem in Mobile County - no one is responsible for what lurks in the creeks, rivers, and lakes. Based on what I see, there are no water monitors that get out into the field. No one removes the pollution on a regular basis.

What else lurks in your drinking water supply? I have no idea what this was. A refrigerator? It has been on the shoreline a long time.

Lance LeFleur is right in the fact that much of the roadside garbage is public garbage and the public bears responsibility in its clean up. 

It is time to raise taxes specifically to hire the army of people necessary to clean up behind the public pigs who illegally toss their trash to the ground. But why should I pay higher taxes to clean up the mess made by the criminal act of others? That is wrong. Prisons should be empty during the day and every last one of the criminals should be out picking up garbage along the snake infested shorelines.

Mobile, your public water supply area is not clean.

The boat launch site had visible garbage on the ground. Why is this area still open to the public? What is the old saying, "You don't appreciate what you have until you lose it." If roads keep getting littered, shut them down. If parks keep getting littered, shut them down.

The sign on the RR bridge says, "Joker." That reminds me of the Colorado shooting. There is not much difference between the movie theater shooter Holmes and Litterers except time. Both criminals go around breaking the law doing what they want without regard for others. Holmes' actions resulted in immediate harm to innocent people. In the case of litterers the result is slower - all it takes is one molecule of the wrong substance in someone's water to trigger cancer and someone dies. Why don't people who litter cancer causing agents into public water supplies face the death penalty like murderers? Apparently litter murders are hard to prove and even if they could, such murders can't be sensationalized by the media. 50% of men can now expect to die from Cancer. What percentage of cancer will it take before people realize the environment might be polluted and affecting their health?