WETLANDS
It seems as if the public has gotten the attention of elected officials and environmental groups about the
sewer systems of Fairhope, Daphne and Spanish Fort. It is hard to believe in 2017 that we still have regular sewer spills and that we still dump sewage into the bay.
Fairhope City Council, during the last meeting Oct 9th, heard a presentation from Baykeepers involving the testing of water in 12 locations, once a week for 12 weeks. Fly Creek Watershed is one of those locations. They will probably be restricted to certain locations in the Fly Creek Watershed as land owner Arthur Corte has refused testing anywhere on his property. Lets hope they go up Fly Creek behind the Woodlands on the opposite side as Publix. They will find the creek eroding the banks and trees littered in the creek, impeding flow. They should also check out the outfall pipe from Publix that dumps directly into the wetlands.
Fly Creek has gotten little attention from authorities in the past.
During public participation of the same meeting a resident from Sandy Ford, Rock Creek area, produced photographs of the wetlands by the subdivision of Firefly. This is the same Fly Creek Watershed. The resident said she, as well as other neighbors have smelled foul odors and have seen discolored water which appeared to be contaminated. The city lift stations have also been problematic in the same area. Baykeepers was given a copy of the photo’s and even acknowledged that they were familiar with the location. However Casi Callaway was too occupied with talking to the council and not the citizen complaining. These complaints have been fallen on deaf ears in the past, no city official or state agency has taken any time to answer any of the citizens complaints living in the area.
The City of Fairhope, the EPA, Jim Graves, Dept of Health, Myron Riley, ADEM Lance Leflur and the Corp. of Engineers, Glenn Cunningham all failed to follow up or contact the citizens with an explanation. Maybe Baykeepers can test that location since they have a fresh complaint and they have yet started to test any other locations. Please contact Baykeepers, [email protected].
And ask them to please test this area as well as conducting a visual inspection of the watershed by Firefly.
What a small world it is! Firefly was another Arthur Corte project with none other than Councilman Kevin Boone having an LLC related to the same project, He has dissolved the LLC since it has been exposed.
Please remind Baykeepers that many people live along Fly Creek and that the proposed apartments to be built on the banks of the creek will only add to the already existing problems with sewage, water quality and quality of life. Baykeepers has remained mute on Fly Creek and its watershed, let’s hope maybe they are waking up.