Islandkeeper

Bait & Switch?

by Glen Coffee

Dec 2018

Congressman Bradley Byrne issued a very cryptic news release on December 18, 2018 announcing “...the Army Corps will dedicate $4 million to benefit Dauphin Island by placing dredge material in the Sand Island Beneficial Use Area." The news release resulted in three follow-up articles. Links to all four articles are provided at the end of this article so you can judge for yourself the content of this information.

The text in that news release which sends up a red flag is this:  ..."by placing dredge material in the Sand Island Beneficial Use Area..."

On the surface, the proposed action sounds like very good news for Dauphin Island and a solution to the longstanding erosion problem. However, careful reading of the articles reveals that crucial details are missing -- the most important of which is:

Exactly where and at what depth will the dredged sands be placed?

We are concerned this announcement could be an attempt by the Corps and the Port Authority to lull the concerned public into a false sense of security by making us think they are making real and permanent changes in the way dredged sands will be disposed in the future so the public will not bother to comment on the Channel Deepening Report when it is released in the spring. Because of that possibility, we must continue to remain VIGILANT and INVOLVED.

The Corps needs to answer the following five questions:

1. How will the proposed action to use $4 million to place dredged sands within the newly expanded SIBUA be different from the traditional manner in which the Corps has placed sands in the SIBUA over the last 20 years?

2. At what location and at what depth will the dredged sands be placed during the proposed disposal action?

3. Does the Corps intend for the proposed disposal action to become a regular feature of the Mobile Harbor maintenance program that will be performed each time the Outer Bar Channel is dredged?

4. Does the Corps plan to monitor the effectiveness of the proposed sand placement action in countering the erosion of Dauphin Island?

5. What is the source of the additional $4 million the Corp has obtained to fund the proposed sand placement action and how are those monies different from the normal annual Operations and Maintenance appropriation received each year for Mobile Harbor?

While we, with your help, have been successful in getting the Corps to pay attention to some of our channel maintenance concerns, the Corps has still not formally committed to place ALL future dredged sands at a location and in depths less than 15 feet that assures the sands reenter the littoral system and are carried to Dauphin Island.

For that reason, we ask each of you to do the following:

Please send a brief letter to the Corps asking the above five questions about its plans to use $4 million in 2019 to place dredged sands to benefit Dauphin Island by countering shoreline erosion.

The letters should be sent to:
COL Sebastien P. Joly, Commander
US Army Corps of Engineers
PO Box 2288
Mobile, Alabama 36628-0001

Everyone who enjoys Dauphin Island and is concerned about the long-term fate of Alabama’s only barrier island should want to see the answers to the above five questions. Hopefully, Congressman Byrne will, on behalf of his constituents, also become more active in pursuing answers to these questions since he was responsible for the initial news release.

Thanks for your continued support and interest.