Bayou Chateauguay

You can change the name of a polluted creek but you cannot change its image without changing its image.

A bicycle group wants to change the name of polluted Three Mile Creek to Bayou Chateauguay which no one will ever be able to pronounce. The bicycle group also wants a 10-12 mile bicycle trail built along the creek.

I say, do not waste a dime of money on the polluted Three Mile Creek until the City of Mobile respects and values their waterway asset enough to remove the trash from its trashy shorelines.

Here is what the shoreline typically looks like along the last few miles of Three Mile Trash Creek. This photo merge was taken yesterday.

Stormwater Systems Bandalong Litter Trap

Shoreline upstream of the Stormwater Systems Bandalong litter trap remains polluted with trash.

Trashy shoreline downstream of the litter trap.

Trashy shoreline downstream of the litter trap.

Trashy shoreline downstream of the litter trap.

Any community considering the purchase of a hugely expensive Stormwater System's Bandalong Litter Trap should NOT waste money on it. At least not if the waterway is in the tidal zone.

Despite a $660,000 Bandalong litter trap installation in Eslava Creek, the creek remains polluted with trash both upstream and downstream.

Expecting a single litter trap to result in a cleaner watershed with many tributaries is like putting a large dust pan in one place along a Mardi Gras parade route and expecting it to corral the parade trash for easy removal. Sure, a large dust pan will catch a few pieces Mardi Gras trash but the remainder of the parade route will remain trashy unless laborers pick up the rest of the trash not caught in the dust pan.

The reality from the perspective of my kayak is, if a community wants clean waterways it will take manual labor working on the water from an appropriate boat and on the shorelines on foot to remove the litter chunking community's storm water trash from where it ends up in each navigable waterway after rains. 

To me it seems the Stormwater Systems Bandalong Litter Trap is a burden to the City of Mobile because to remove a few pounds (bags) of lightweight plastic bottles and styrofoam trash after a heavy rain seems to require removing tons of leaves, pine straw, twigs, and grass too. Then those tons of wet natural debris have to be hauled away.

Mobile's $660,000 would have yielded better results by employing a Clean Up Boat trash picker upper person for 15 years. 

Look no further than the Charles River in Boston to see a Clean Up Boat operation that has been successfully keeping the Charles River clean for over a decade at almost no cost to the City if Boston.

Local environmental groups and the City of Mobile were told about the successful Charles River Clean Up Boat operation over 5 years ago and all turned down a opportunity to mimic the waterway cleanup in Mobile's trashy waterways. 

Nooo, some environmental group leader was bent on getting a litter trap instead of helping to get a Clean Up Boat in operation. She got her wish and Eslava Creek and Dog River are still lined with a sickening amount of trash because apparently the City and Community as a whole still employ ZERO full time trash picker uppers to clean the community's trash polluted waterways. That is retarded.

Trashy shoreline of Dog River downstream of the Bandalong Litter Trap.

Contrary to the popular notion that all storm water trash is benign, storm water trash includes trash hazardous to the environment and public health, like electronics and chemicals.

Not only have environmental agencies, groups and the Government failed Flint Michigan, they are failing to care about Alabama waterways too. That is pathetic.

Got Cancer Yet?

Dog River Park Blight

May 2009 - Kayak launch at Dog River Park - functional.

April 2011 - City of Mobile officials and Dog River Clearwater Revival officials designate the Dog River Park kayak launch as an official launch site of the newly dedicated Dog River Scenic Blueway. Launch site still functional.

January 2016 - The City of Mobile and Dog River Scenic Blueway group quit maintaining the Dog River Park Kayak Launch despite complaints. The newly dedicated Dog River Scenic Blueway kayak launch site is no longer functional because of blight.

And if you look closer at the Blighted Dog River Park Kayak Launch area you will see it is almost always polluted with trash because the City of Mobile still appears to have no plan to regularly remove trash from their park shorelines. No one cares if Dog River Park stays polluted with trash.

Shame on the City of Mobile Parks Department, Dog River Scenic Blueway Committee, Dog River Clearwater Revival, and ADEM. Shame on Mayor Stimpson who stood on the trashy shoreline of Dog River Park making a video about littering yet he cannot implement a simple plan to remove trash from the park shoreline every time the park is mowed.

A City that refuses to regularly pick up trash from their park property and refuses to mow around the Kayak Launch they helped officially dedicate is a City that does not care about its waterway environment.

And it is not just the Kayak Launch area of Dog River Park that is blighted. Easy to see Trash is ignored even in plain view of the park signage.

Dog River is one big Trash Chute to Mobile City Leaders and the community of Litter Chunkers. ADEM is obviously still ignoring the City of Mobile's continuing violations of State and Federal pollution laws.

No Kayaking Necessary

One does not need to kayak to see the extent if Mobile's storm water trash pollution problem. This photo shows the trashy Industrial Canal in the Threemile Creek Watershed.

Arlington Park Pollution Ignored

The City of Mobile's Trashy Shoreline at its Arlington Park (aka Mobile Bay Shoreline) remains an eyesore to residents and visitors because the City of Mobile ignores most storm water litter, even after years of complaints.

Storm Water Litter is not just a City of Mobile community problem as storm water trash is abundant throughout the entire Mobile County.

The accumulation of storm water trash along most Mobile waterways is merely a symptom of Alabama having no recycling expectations or requirements along with having ZERO people employed to remove litter once it reaches the state of Alabama's navigable waterways. If there is anyone working full time removing trash from Mobile area waterways I have never seen them or seen any improvement in the trashy shorelines.

The end result? Alabama which once advertised itself "Alabama the Beautiful" is no longer beautiful - it is trashy. To keep up with reality Alabama now advertises itself "Sweet Home Alabama." The new name was probably chosen in reference to all the empty sugary drink bottles acumulating along and polluting most of its waterways. Sweet eh?

03/08/2014 - Big Creek Lake Pollution

Out of sight, out of mind. You may be indifferent about trash floating in urban waterways of low income neighborhoods but don't think it can't affect you. Mobile's policy of ignoring stormwater litter can affect everyone. Here are some photos from Big Creek Lake which is Mobile's drinking water supply taken this past week.

Picture yourself in an office around a water cooler. Visualize the unusually huge water cooler reservoir being clear glass. In the water cooler is litter - pill bottles, syringes, condoms, rusted spray cans containing who knows what, acetone cans, acid containing batteries, lighters, gasoline containers, etc. You can probably imagine how office workers would react seeing what they had to drink out of, even if the cooler had an end filter. 

If office environments would not tolerate garbage floating in a public water cooler, why is Mobile Area Water and Sewer System , Mobile Baykeeper, Mobile Bay National Estuary Program, Alabama Department of Environmental Management, the City of Mobile and others STILL ignoring the unmonitored garbage floating in Mobile's public water supply called Big Creek Lake, which I've complained to Mobile Area Water and Sewer System about for the past two years?

What is in your drinking water supply Mobile? Unmonitored garbage, some of which could be hazardous to your health.

When that multi-lane US Highway 98 is ever finished above Big Creek Lake, motorist litter is going to result in a even more trash entering Mobile's drinking water lake that the city or county doesn't bother to clean, even once a year.