Islandkeeper

Telling the Story You Want To Tell

(instead of the whole story, i.e., the whole truth)

by Glen Coffee

November 2012

To: The NY Times

By essentially ignoring the root cause of Dauphin Island’s severe erosion problems which lies with the long term maintenance of a federal navigation channel, your article has made the residents of the island’s West End appear as free loaders who are simply milking the federal system so that they can continue to live extravagantly in an “at risk” environment.  Never mind that the risk has been greatly aggravated by a federal project.

I realize full well that the premise of the story that living on barrier islands carry a great risk certainly has merit if viewed in isolation.  But, but as we have pointed out, the extenuating circumstances that have greatly intensified that risk on Dauphin Island were not adequately explored in your story because it detracted from the article’s central agenda.  Instead, your story only reported on a portion of the facts, and unfortunately for our community we have no real way to assure the total facts are presented.

And because of your story’s “Absence of Malice” repercussions, our community must now have to fight even harder against the political and commercial interests that outweigh our small community of less than 1300 and who are less concerned about preventing the weakening of an ecologically important barrier island than ensuring a commercial navigation project is maintained as cheaply as possible.  Which of those outcomes do you think is in the best long-term “public interest”?

What is most disturbing to us is that we provided you with information to support our position but you chose not to use any of it because it did not help tell the story your article was intended to convey.   I for one will think long and hard before cooperating with the NY Times again.  Please do us a favor and not use Dauphin Island in a future story if you are disinterested in examining all of the factors influencing the problems affecting our tiny island.

I think your paper should do a follow-up article that fully explores Dauphin Island's erosion problems, the reasons homeowners are experiencing repeated losses, and how the taxpayers of the nation are being asked to pay for those losses because the 40 plus years of maintenance dredging of a federal navigation project (i.e. Mobile Harbor Ship Channel) is being performed in an environmental unsustainable fashion that starves Dauphin Island of its critical natural supply of sand while threatening the long-term viability of Alabama's western coast line.

That is the real story of Dauphin Island.  Even if there were no homes on Dauphin Island's West End, the continuing erosion will steadily weaken the island, creating breaches that will adversely affect the estuarine habitats of Mississippi Sound.  Eventually, the taxpayers are going to be asked to fix that problem in a fashion similar to the Everglades in south Florida due to the agricultural diversion of water and restoration of Louisiana's coastal marshes due to the loss of alluvial sediments because of levying the Mississippi River.

Instead of reporting the effects of the Ship Channel on the weakening of Dauphin Island's West End, the story blames the property owners for their losses when they are not responsible for the dredging and disposal decisions that are causing the island to disappear. 

You may think that what we have at Dauphin Island is a local problem, but it is not.  It is emblematic of large navigation projects that pass through the coastal inlets on all coasts of our nation.  There are hidden costs of such projects that their advocates and political proponents choose to ignore and refuse to acknowledge.  And, eventually, the taxpayers feel the effects of the decisions to construct and maintain those projects with less than adequate plans that recognizes the full cost of doing business.

That is what I would prefer to see.  The NY Times do a second story that addresses Dauphin Island's full story.  As it is now, I believe that I was conducted only to obtain the names of an individual(s) that could provide a quote that would fit within the context of what was the real agenda for your story.

Glen Coffee 

Project Manager/Biologist 

Islandkeeper's response to the NY Times:

As a Dauphin Island West End property owner, our family can state that we have NEVER received any federal funds after a storm on the island.  There are hundreds of people, like us, who pay many thousands in insurance every year - to private insurance companies - and do not receive federal funds or "handouts" after storm damage.  

We pay our deductibles and receive only a percentage of the funds necessary for repairs from our insurance carriers.  Or we make no claims at all, out of fear of the insurance premiums going up, or fear of being dropped completely by the insurance company, and pay for repairs out of pocket.  

Anyone who thinks many or most property owners on the island receive federal handouts after every storm is gravely mistaken.  We pay taxes.  We pay for private insurance.  And most of us receive no federal funds for assistance in repairs or rebuilds after storms.