Ugly Status Quo of MS4 Pollution

Many areas along Dog River are normally trashy year after year. The above photo was taken last year.

Same spot, the above photo was taken a couple of weeks ago showing the trash all removed. 

Having recently confirmed the City of Mobile recently starting operating a litter boat (tho I have never seen it) and seeing this normally trashy shoreline had been cleaned, I assumed the City of Mobile was finally taking action to remove the long neglected trash pollution from Dog River.

Was about to give big Kudos to the City of Mobile but after asking around, it became clear that it was a couple of Dog River residents and the Dog River Clearwater Revival group that was responsible for this particular cleanup. Thank you Kent, Travis, Kathy, Claire and anyone else for helping to clean up this one trashy area on Dog River. This group and volunteers helped clean the shoreline of an elderly home owner who is unable to get out to remove the City's MS4 trash after every big rain.

Same spot, the above photo showing that unfortunately, more City MS4 trash has already started filling in the Dog River shoreline in the recently cleaned up area.

From what I have been able to learn, the City litter boat will not remove storm water trash from shorelines because supposedly people complained. Really? Shorelines is where 95 percent of storm water trash ends up.

So despite a four year old lawsuit against the City of Mobile demanding the city both get a handle on their community's litter problem and remove any future storm water trash from Dog River, it appears the status quo of the City ignoring all the shoreline litter in Dog River remains the same.

The leaders in the City of Mobile are just too incompetent to come up with a simple plan to remove the shoreline trash from Dog River watershed. It appears ADEM needs to sue the City of Mobile AGAIN for continuing to ignore the Existing City's storm water trash pollution in Dog River.

This is the type of pollution that all the best minds in the City of Mobile, despite fines and lawsuits, cannot figure out how to remove to restore Dog River wetlands to their healthy natural state. I had no problem paddling right up to the trash.

Hell, the City of Mobile cannot even find a way to keep the shoreline of their Dog River Park clean.

Ugly Rain

It rained yesterday. So how is that expensive litter trap doing with regards to keeping Dog River free of trash? Good news and bad news.

The good news is the litter trap prevented some of Eslava Creek's storm water trash from flowing down to Dog River.

The bad news is Dog River waterfront homeowners downstream of the litter trap are still burdened with storm water trash pollution. Above photo shows a resident out in the rain raking storm water trash away from his shoreline trash barrier fence so the City's storm water trash continues on downstream to burden some other homeowner.

In the above photo another resident downstream of the litter trap is out in the rain trying to dislodge storm water trash (which included a dead deer) collecting next to his boat. In other words, the litter trap is not helping this homeowner.

Down stream of the litter trap the rain left this home owner with a ring of trash around his property.

The rain left this boathouse downstream of the litter trap clogged with a nasty amount of storm water trash.

Downstream of the litter trap it is still easy to see an Ugly amount of trash floating in the water along the shoreline of Dog River. The litter trap is about worthless if no one removes the existing trash already polluting Dog River.

And what about living along Dog River near Moore Creek which has no litter trap? Look at the view the rain left this home owner. Ugly eh?

Look at the Ugly view people in this $1 Million Dollar home get to see. Storm water trash pollution is the reward people get for the priviledge of owning property along Dog River.

Again, the good news is the litter trap prevented some of the Litter Chunking community's trash from going into Dog River. 

The bad news you would never even know there is a litter trap in the Dog River watershed due to all the trash seen after every rain. And yesterdays approx 4.5 inch rain with the exception of the brief initial deluge was for the most part a gentle rain that should not have propelled much trash into Dog River. As often as I have paddled up and down Dog River I still have NOT seen the City of Mobile's litter removal boat working Dog River.

Dog River continues to be burdened with vast amounts of trash pollution because the Ugly Mobile community has yet to get tough on littering and has yet to institute a plan to regularly remove roadside ditch trash and waterway trash pollution. That is the UGLY truth.

Trashy Drainage System

Drainage Ditches in Mobile are STILL in reality Mobile Litter Chunker's Community litter storage system. Just look at all the plastic trash on along this roadside ditch owned by the University of South Alabama in Mobile councilwoman's Gina Gregory's district.

Why do I insinuate Mobile's storm water drainage is still the Mobile community's litter disposal system? Because it is STILL common to see litter in drainage inlets and drainage ditches throughout the trashy City limits of Mobile. This roadside inlet along North Sage Avenue in Mobile Councilman Fred Richard's district, dangerously missing its steel cover next to the road and sidewalk, is obviously a holding spot for litter.

Yeah Boy, the City of Mobile leaders are really getting tough on littering and its storm water trash pollution like they promised they would to the Media. 

NOT! 

It seems Mobile leaders are too busy bickering with each other to do a competent job for the Mobile community they represent.

http://wkrg.com/2016/03/07/richardson-launches-fb-assault-on-cooper/

Ugly Dogs

Both Alabama and Mobile have dog leash laws but an Ugly amount of dog owners including my own neighbors ignore the dog leash laws leading to unnecessary confrontations with dogs running wild. Loose dogs not only chase and try to bite people, here is a loose dog running along Dog River by a geese nesting area harassing a few distraught geese smart enough to stay in deeper water.

There ought be a 365 day a year hunting season on wild dogs just like there is on wild pigs. I know. Dog lovers will think that is cruel. But the State of Alabama authorizes alligator hunts to keep the public safe and alligator attacks on humans are extremely rare. Sadly, dog attacks are all too common. Check out the following link:

http://www.fox10tv.com/story/31132160/6-year-old-fighting-for-his-life

Ugly Park Visitors

The trashy Municipal Park Lake in Mobile. There were dozens if not hundreds of empty plastic bread bags in and around the Lake. Apparently there are a lot of littering criminals using the public park and no litter enforcement officers issuing tickets to deter the crime of littering.

Or, maybe the Visitors to Municipal Park properly disposed of their trash in one of the City's inferior open top trash receptacles and wind or birds scattered the lightweight trash throughout the Park. It is obvious this overflowing trash receptacle is not emptied frequently enough.

Either way, the result of the trash collection problem in City Parks is Ugly. It shows the City of Mobile has no intention of getting tough on their community's litter and their storm water trash pollution problem. 

The City of Mobile Parks Department will not use garbage cans with lids on them even thou city municipal code mandates residential and commercial property owners use trash receptacles with lids on them to prevent trash from escaping into the environment. The City of Mobile Parks Director should be Fired!

Fish Taste

Many big fish begin their lives in the upper tributaries like seen above. Do you eat fish? Taste pretty good? It should.

Good things like oil and starter fluid are being added to the water where the minnows swim. Yum yum. 

Yup. America is turning into a Third World Country where the residents like in Mobile freely pollute their public waterways. That is Retarded and the Ugly truth.

Ugly Maple Street Canal

Above Photo:  Maple Street Canal in the Three Mile Creek watershed continues to be filled with the community of Mobile's litter chunker trash. That is because Mobile and Alabama do not have a single person working to remove the community's trash pollution from this 1/4 mile long polluted waterway. Complaints about that Ugly fact since 2011 have not given the City of Mobile any incentive to remove the trash from this City's property yet. 

The sorry ass leaders in Mobile and Alabama do not give a fuck about "The Bottom" area of Mobile probably because it is a low income black area. The rich white people in Dog River get the litter trap and a litter boat.

There is so much trash underwater in Maple Street Canal that the water is now too shallow for a motor boat to access. A shallow creekbed promotes the growth of aquatic weeds further clogging the waterway. An increasingly shallow and clogged waterway negatively affects the ability of storm water runoff to drain which can cause unnecessary flooding in the Bottom and other downtown Mobile areas.

Above photo: Polluted Maple Street Canal shoreline - property owned by the City of Mobile. Great irony here. The City that refuses to deal with its Ugly criminal litter problem ends up with an increasing amount of its own MS4 trash on their own City of Mobile property labeled as Owens School Park on Google Maps.

The City of Mobile is Two-Faced. City leaders passed municipal code requiring residential and commercial property owners to keep their property free of litter on a daily basis, yet the City of Mobile will NOT remove the trash on their own property despite YEARS of complaints.

Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson and Mobile Councilman Levon Manzie are responsible for ignoring this waterway pollution and are therefore complicit in ignoring environmental pollution complaints. They should be charged accordingly and sent to jail where leaders who ignore pollution belong.