Back in late June I observed the brand new expensive Stormwater Systems Band-a-Long litter trap fail to trap a trashberg in Dog River right in front of the trap and reported on the incident which irritated a few people. Sorry. In my haste to observe and report I did not realize that personnel installing the litter trap may not have finished adjusting the litter trap to work properly.
Fast forward almost two months. I am speculating that the Stormwater Systems Litter Trap which cost the City of Mobile about $600,000 to install ought to be properly adjusted by now.
I went kayaking yesterday knowing it was going to rain. Before the rain the litter trap gate was closed keeping a styrofoam container and other litter in the water blocked from entering the litter trap.
After the rain, the styrofoam container was found about 100 yards upstream trapped against a tree limb in the water. Despite two different rainstorms between about 11:45 am and 1:45 pm, incoming tide was still carrying storm water trash in Dog River upstream rendering the Stormwater Systems litter trap totally useless. There was no trash in the litter trap. Trash at the entrance to the blocked litter trap gate freely floated right back upstream just like I observed almost two months ago.
I chose this day to observe the functionality of the new trap because of the tidal period. The tide swings on August 19 were about as minimal as they get in Neap Tide stage. Despite the minimal tide swings, the two brief rainstorms failed to create enough storm water flow to open the Litter Trap gate. Some trash blocked from entering the litter trap by the closed gate floated freely away from the litter trap.
Knowing that the tide flows upstream half the time each day, to me that means the gate on the Litter Trap will remain closed about half the time of every day, even after a typical thunder storm in minimal upstream tide like today. A closed litter trap gate prevents the litter trap from trapping litter rending it ineffective. This is not to say the Stormwater Systems litter trap will not work in a gully washer type rain storm but those are rare and only happen a couple of times a year.
For this kayaker, despite yet another litter trap in upper Dog River, the scenery along the shoreline (including next to the litter trap) is still the same. Can you say UGLY? I kayaked 14 miles yesterday and saw trash on the shoreline along every one of the 14 miles.
Despite ADEM reporting the excessive plastic bottle storm water trash pollution problem in upper Dog River in a 1994 report, 21 years later there is still no program in place to see to it that the plastic pollution in Dog River is removed. The Ugly trashy shoreline result is no surprise.
That my friends, is the UGLY reality of upper Dog River. No one seem to care enough to put a single person out on the water removing the existing trash pollution. That includes all those entities and groups responsible for the integrity of the environment.
The sad part is just one person working full time removing the waterway trash could easily keep Upper Dog River clean. $600,000 could have employeed someone full time for 15 years keeping Dog River clean for 15 years. Instead we got one expensive litter trap that appears it won't even work half the time due to tidal influences and a still trashy Dog River watershed including along the shoreline next to the litter trap and both upstream and downstream of the litter trap.
So I wrote a little ditty about my 14 mile kayak trip yesterday to the tune of "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall".
Dog River Storm Water Litter Blues
14 miles of trash along the shore.
14 miles of trash.
The City doesn't care.
The State doesn't care.
Still 14 miles of trash along the shore.