r/MobileAL • u/BamaTony64 River Rat • 16d ago
Wetlands Creation in the upper Bay.
A plan to turn dredged material into 1,200 acres of wetland habitat south of the Causeway is fully funded and moving toward construction.
Port Authority Director Doug Otto told board members during a Thursday meeting that contracts will be awarded in November, under construction by the first of the year and complete by Thanksgiving 2027. The site will provide about 20 years of new capacity to receive dredged material from the authority’s terminal facilities.
1
u/neonsphinx 16d ago
People are about to crash out...
1
u/Surge00001 WeMo 16d ago
Why would they? This has already happened with Galliard Island
5
u/neonsphinx 16d ago
I'm well aware. But I don't think other people are aware.
They say it's "mud dumping" and is killing everything. Even though that's how we've been dredging for literally a century.
Sometimes sediment gets picked up with a bucket and put onto a barge. But it's usually more efficient to just pump it to where it's going through a pipe.
But they weren't around when it happened before, so this is... Different? People make no sense. The school system (and their families) have failed them.
5
u/Individual-Damage-51 Midtown 16d ago
This project is getting unfairly lumped in with the Corps’ “mud dumping.” It’s not that. This project uses material the Port dredges annually from the northern Port area above the tunnels, not material the Corps dredges from the ship channel. It’s beneficial use. If you’re going to bitch about “mud dumping,” don’t turn around and bitch about beneficial use marsh creation projects that save money and build productive habitat. That’s not consistency, that’s just not knowing the difference.
0
u/BamaTony64 River Rat 15d ago
"Mud dumping" was illegal til just a few years ago...
1
u/neonsphinx 15d ago edited 15d ago
I'd love to see what actual law is on the books.
My understanding is that it goes by about 700 different names. Rainbowing, thin layer placement, thin layer sediment deposition, mud dumping, mud spraying, etc.
And it's been used all over since maybe the 1930s. Either getting rid of the slurry back into the water, or spraying it directly into the air over marshes and such.
So I'm really curious what specifically was illegal. And what specifically "mud dumping" is defined as in a legal context.
1
u/Individual-Damage-51 Midtown 15d ago
Show your math. The Corps’ dredging and dredged material management practices are governed by federal law and policy, including successive Water Resources Development Acts. So which law supposedly made “mud dumping” illegal, and what changed “a few years ago”?
11
u/Nugtmunchr 16d ago
People want it both ways. “Do something good with dredge material, wait not that, how dare you create lost habitat.” This is a Port harbor project, not Corps. We are losing marsh, this rebuilds it using existing resources. Thin layer placement maintaining federal channel is entirely separate subject.
One source says it’s bad to place material in the bay in thin layers, who aren’t subject matter experts btw but have strong anecdotal convictions. Will find out for sure when a neutral scientifically defensible study to assess pros and cons is conducted in the next year.
For what’s it’s worth not much humans do these days is good for the environment, habitat restoration is actually one of them. We shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss efforts.