Bayou La Trash Pollution

I was not going to post any more on Mobile area waterway trash pollution but my paddle today in Bayou La Batre warrants another post.

These are all photos from today's paddle which coincided with an organized event called "Paddle Bayou La Batre" that attracted about 90 paddlers.

Much of the Bayou La Batre shoreline is real trashy, especially along the first mile of the waterway. So I paddled up to the Alabama Marine Resources Enforcement boat which was occupied by two officers. "What's up with all the trash along the shoreline? Why isn't Alabama Marine Resources Enforcement doing something about the pollution?" I asked.

One of the officers replies to the effect, "We deal with the Saltwater Marine environment and this waterway (Bayou La Batre) is under the jurisdiction of the City of Bayou La Batre." 

The pollution of the Gulf of Mexico from the Bayou La Batre trash is not their problem huh? Excuses are like butts. Alabama has some big ass butt excuses when it comes to dealing with waterway pollution.

I tried again and asked, "But isn't Bayou La Batre a STATE waterway and so shouldn't Alabama Marine Resources Enforcement care about the pollution of a STATE waterway?" No reply.

If the City of Bayou La Batre is polluting a STATE waterway that connects directly to the Gulf of Mexico then the Alabama Marine Resources Enforcement division should be crawling all over the ass of City of Bayou La Batre officials and inspecting boatyards and shrimp boat docks for sources of trash. Same with the Alabama Department of Environmental Management.

I've filed complaints with ADEM for years about Bayou La Batre trash pollution and this is what the waterway looks like today. Obviously, after the apathetic responses by Alabama Marine Resource Enforcement today to the very visible trash pollution problem along Bayou La Batre, it is obvious the City of Bayou La Batre, the County of Mobile, Environmental Enforcement Agencies, the State of Alabama and the Federal Government do not care what is floating in Alabama public waterways. That is the UGLY truth.

I am willing to bet that not a single one of the 90 paddlers in today's organized Paddle Bayou La Batre event will ever file a complaint with ADEM about the trash pollution in Bayou La Batre that they paddled right next to.

Could the apathy about the Bayou La Batre pollution be due to foreigners taking over the community? Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotian foreigners now make up a third of the Bayou La Batre population according to the 2000 census. I wonder how many foreigners are sucking on the financial nipple of the American Government. I wonder how many are here illegally not paying taxes. 

An influx of residents who pay no taxes can burden a community to the point of collapse. Maybe that might explain why the City of Bayou La Batre is so broke it can't afford to provide basic services. A bankrupt City explains why the Bayou La Batre Public Boat Ramp park is littered with excessive amounts of trash while the garbage can overflows.

Just who is responsible for dealing with the pollution of Bayou La Batre? Someone needs to go to jail for neglecting very visible pollution.

Trashy Bayou La Batre Boat Ramp Area.

Trashy Gulf of Mexico Shoreline. I put the lighters found along 100 yards of beach together.

Trashy Bayou La Batre shoreline.

About 90 paddlers attending the Paddle Bayou La Batre event.

Paddlers in the background oblivious to the density of trash pollution along Bayou La Trash.

Some of the shoreline trash is very visible.

Where might a white boot come from? Fishing or shrimping boat worker? Yeah, much of the trash along Bayou La Batre is directly related to the boats and industries along the polluted waterway.

Kayakers passing by a trashy shoreline.

Alabama Marine Resources Enforcement says the Trash pollution is not their problem.

Kind of hard to not see the trash pollution along Bayou La Batre.

A lot of the trash floating in Bayou La Batre is hazardous to the environment.

While shoreline trash is visible, much of it floats in the water hidden behind shoreline weeds.

This is the inset view from the previous photo showing what lurks behind the shoreline grass.

Poor bird suffering from fishing line trash.

This is normal for Bayou La Trash.

But trashy shorelines are not normal to wildlife.

Bayou La Petroleum Pollution

Since 2009, I paddled Bayou La Batre 20 times. 90 percent of those paddles petroleum sheens were encountered. If Alabama Environmental Enforcement and the Media do not see that there is a problem with that percentage, they are blind. Speaking of Blind...

So I paddled up to a Alabama Marine Resources Enforcement boat today in Bayou La Batre which was occupied by two officers. "Hey, there is a petroleum sheen over there," I tell the officers pointing to the location.

One of the officers replies to the effect, "Yeah, the Coast Guard won't do anything unless there is at least 50 gallons of diesel spilled." 

This lame excuse comes from a Alabama Marine Enforcement officer who did not even bother to investigate my complaint. How does he know where the petroleum sheen is coming from or how much was spilled if he did not investigate the source? Pathetic!

This is so typical of my frustration with reporting visible pollution. Not only is paddling in rainbow colored water undesirable, the fumes of petroleum can be overwhelmingly nauseating. And no one gives a damn about the pollution in Alabama Environmental Enforcement. That is the Ugly truth.

I am willing to bet that not a single one of the 90 paddlers in today's organized Paddle Bayou La Batre even noticed the petroleum pollution because they were all paddling on the other side of the Bayou mesmerized by the big shrimp boats. 

Like usual even though enforcement people don't care, I took time to investigate the source of the petroleum pollution because based on previous experience, sometimes there can be major diesel leak involved. Today's petroleum pollution was coming from a new sunken boat in a berthing area off Bayou La Batre.

Two guys walked up to the shoreline next to the petroleum leaching boat as I was photo documenting the petroleum pollution (rainbow sheen) coming from the boat. They proceeded to tell me conflicting stories. "Oh, the diesel came from a spilled fuel can," one guy says. Really? And it is still flowing freely from the boat?

He proceeds to say that a gang of thieves stole the boat, took thousands of dollars worth of gear off the boat, towed it to the berthing area, and sunk it. He said the owner had a clean up crew come out to empty the fuel tanks so the sunken boat shouldn't be leaking any petroleum. 

Sorry, the petroleum sheen filled the big boat berthing area and continued on out into Bayou La Batre. No one had bothered to put out a petroleum boom to try to contain the leaking petroleum from going out into Bayou La Batre.

And there the sunken boat rests leaking petroleum into Bayou La Batre night and day. BP got their ass fined big time for polluting the environment. When boats in Bayou La Batre pollute the environment with Petroleum, that is considered normal? Ignoring petroleum pollution in public State waterways is criminal.

Robert Bentley, the Governor of Alabama thinks it is more important to use BP Restoration Funds to build a state resort on the beaches of Gulf Shores rather than to clean up its polluted State waterways. That is so sad.

I reported the petroleum spill to the officers on this boat.

The petroleum spill goes unnoticed to most of the paddlers.

I talked to the guys (circled) about the petroleum coming from this sunken boat.

When water is this color it also presents an inhalation hazard. Nausating to breathe in the fumes.

The petroleum pollution went well out into Bayou La Batre.

Bayou La Batre Pollution

If you think Dog River and Three Mile Creek are polluted with trash, try kayaking in Bayou La Batre also known as Bayou La Trash. Beware of eating any seafood processed in the polluted community of Bayou La Batre which calls itself the "Seafood Capital of Alabama."

08/27/2013 - Bayou La Trash

Bird Watching in Bayou La Trash aka Bayou La Batre.

09/18/2012 - Bayou La Batre AFTER the Coastal Cleanup

Header image - shoreline in Bayou La Batre AFTER the coastal cleanup. What is in your Bayou La Batre seafood? Piss on Bayou La Batre seafood - Bayou La Batre doesn't care. Enjoy your Cancer.

A little Photoshop fun to better accentuate the reality of this waterway.

This shrimp boat logo (actual logo) sums up Bayou La Batre. "Piss on Bayou La Batre seafood." You might want to find out where your seafood came from before you eat it.

Mouth of Bayou La Batre looking toward the Gulf of Mexico - two days after the coastal cleanup.

There was one crab still shaking in this crab trap and the others were dead. What a waste of life.

My kayak visible on the left should give you perspective of the density of shoreline trash in this Bayou.

This community has publicly allowed their waterway to become severely polluted for the whole world to see. Just image how little they care when it comes to processing your seafood behind closed doors.

Some will say, ah, Isaac put all the trash there. Wrong. Most of the trash has been here for years. The problem is no one is removing it, not even during a Coastal Cleanup Event.

Nice spider lily flower on a industrial property.

This could have been a nice sandpiper photo but it is hard to see the bird for all the trash. That is why there is no kayak outfitter in Bayou La Batre. This shoreline trash is ruining the Bayou's potential kayak tourism.

Kayaking in this waterway makes me sick to my stomach but I had to do it today to show another Bayou La Batre zone coastal cleanup failure. Far as I can see no trash was removed from the western shoreline.

Shoreline covered in plastic. This affects marine life.

Contents of rusting spray cans eventually spill their guts regardless of the content, poisonous or not.

Bayou La Trash looks the way it does because many of the ship building companies like this one are the ones polluting the water. ADEM should fine companies like this and shut down Bayou La Batre until the shoreline is clean (safe) again.

Most shipbuilders use bulkheads so the trash just floats by.

I quit counting how many times I've paddled in Bayou La Batre through a petroleum spill. Basically every time I paddle, there is petroleum on the water somewhere in that Bayou. There are some serious environmental problems and health hazards in Bayou La Trash. The smell of this spill was bad enough to cause me to quickly turn around. It was noxious smelling.

I didn't stick around to investigate the source of this spill because no one gives a shit. Every time I call the National Response Center nothing happens. The seafood capital of Alabama has no money so no one cares. However, if this was BP oil on the surface of Bayou La Batre, the media would be all over this place along with lawyers and people filing fraudulent claims. Mayor Wright is seeking re-election while facing a federal indictment on corruption charges. Bayou La Batre Grant Writer Janey Galbraith was recently found guilty of conspiracy to commit fraud, embezzlement and money laundering. Former Bayou La Batre police officer Jason Edwards was arrested for stealing money from his own police department. Corruption apparently runs deep in the Bayou...so I hope BP has good people monitoring where their BP money given under duress is going. BP money certainly hasn't reduced the oil pollution in Bayou La Trash.

That is a computer monitor floating in the water in the background.

Why do I bitch so much about this waterway? The wildlife suffers much from the trash and pollution. Here is a pelican carrying around fishing line caught in its wing with a sinker on the end of it.

The birds in Bayou La Batre today looked like they have been in a war zone. This pelican probably broke its wing to get free from a fishing line. Marine wildlife deserves better than what Bayou La Batre is providing them. Those who care for injured birds could have easily picked up a dozen birds unable to fly in this area.

07/30/2012 - Bayou La Batre Puts BP to Shame

I drove to Dauphin Island for a sunrise launch but the winds were blowing so neither the north or south side was protected from the wind. Rather than paddle in 1-2 foot waves and get wet, the Nature Gods led me over to the sheltered waters of Bayou La Batre. Holy Mackerel - Bayou La Batre is the worst place in Mobile County that I have ever paddled and the trash is thicker every time I paddle there. Here are photos from today's reality check.

Header image - shoreline trash in your Seafood Capital of Alabama. Enjoy eating your Petroleum glazed seafood. What other chemicals are in your seafood that you don't know about?

Bayou La Trash (Seafood Capital of Alabama) puts BP to shame when it comes to caring for the environment. At least BP is paying someone to remove their pollution. Bayou La Batre ignores their pollution. Enjoy your Alabama Seafood that may have spawned around the polluted waters of Bayou La Batre.

The petroleum fumes were so dense today it made me nauseous. Seriously, I felt the need to throw up but couldn't. I had to turn around and get out of there cutting the paddle short.

Even though there was a petroleum sheen visible at the boat ramp before I launched, it was a thicker petroleum sheen 3-4 miles upstream that caused me to turn around.

This photo says it all - the shoreline of Bayou La Batre is full of CRAP, most of it PLASTIC.

This being a working bayou with plenty of ship building activity in progress, some of the crap rusting in containers along the shoreline is poisonous.

his being a working bayou with plenty of ship building activity in progress, some of the crap rusting in containers along the shoreline is poisonous.

Leftover BP oil boom pom-poms still adorn the shoreline in Bayou La Batre. The boom which used to be the solution to the oil pollution, is now just the pollution.

Crabs on rotting cardboard.

A sunken boat's innards are free to float away.

Oil boom to catch escaping oil from the sunken boat was installed across the entire berthing area but the boom had a big gap under the dock allowing oil to go around the boom. Duh...

The shoreline trash of Bayou La Batre which seemingly never gets removed, gets denser and denser. You have to see it in person to believe it. 

Instead of Bayou La Batre being a tourist destination for vacationers who want to rent kayaks, it is a garbage and petroleum dump in which no kayak outfitter would associate themselves with.

The further upstream you go, the shoreline load of trash does decrease but shoreline trash was still easy to find 4 miles upstream.

The further upstream you go, the shoreline load of trash does decrease but shoreline trash was still easy to find 4 miles upstream.

Most of the shoreline trash in Bayou La Batre is visible because it floats and can be seen. 

What we should be worried about is what is beneath the water because some garbage sinks. Boat operators stand a good chance at getting rope tangled up in their props if they go near the shoreline.

Trash piled on the docks here included loose plastic bottles. There is always a sheen on the surface of the water in this area.

I saw six different petroleum sheens today and one was so large I called the National Response Center who in turn calls the nearest Coast Guard Hazmat Response Center who in turn calls me. I told the Coast Guard where the spill was. I tracked down the source of the petroleum to a boat that was pumping out fluids from several holes in the hull - one was probably bilge waste. Whether the Coast Guard responded or not I don't know. The Coast Guard doesn't do much about rainbow sheens. They usually let the sun evaporate the spill. The criminal releasing the petroleum into the water should have been issued a big fine for polluting the environment. Authorities go to great length to contain petroleum spills on the interstates after wrecks, so why don't authorities go to great lengths to contain petroleum spills in the water?

Bayou La Batre is a public waterway and almost every time I have kayaked in it I've ended up having to paddle through petroleum and that indicates a serious underlying problem of watershed mismanagement or lack of any watershed management. If petroleum is so easy to find on the water in Bayou La Batre, why isn't ADEM fining the City of Bayou La Batre for violations of the Clean Water Act? Mobile County values are decaying at an alarming rate. Mobile County watershed and estuary managers are asleep at the desk. It is time for them to get out in a kayak and get a whiff of petroleum to wake their ass up so they can see the serious pollution in Bayou La Trash.