Watershed group hopes to expand its efforts

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

While coastal Alabama's population has grown in the last decade, what has not changed is the need to balance development with protecting the ecology that brings people to the region, environmental preservation members said Monday.

The Wolf Bay Watershed Watch marked its 10th anniversary recently with a celebration in which more than 150 members, officials and regional environmental organization representatives took part, said Stan Mahoney, group director.

Mahoney said members are not trying to stop development, but are working to help residents and business owners understand that growth will not continue if the area's natural attributes are hurt.

"We've got to do something to preserve what we have. Otherwise nobody's going to want to come here," Mahoney said. "Our economy and ecology are linked at the hip."

In its 10 years, the group has demonstrated how community members in a developing coastal area can work with officials and businesses to help protect the environment, Quenton Dokken, executive director of the Gulf of Mexico Foundation, said.

"Groups like the Wolf Bay Water shed Watch are a perfect example of what people can do to get involved and do something," he said. "The local community has to get involved and that involves more than just picking up trash on the beach. You have to get involved politically at all levels. Get on the city council agenda, talk about what's going on and what needs to be done."

Dokken said that while education is an important part of preservation efforts, residents have to be prepared to act now and not wait.

"You can't just work on educating children and hope that they'll do something about it when they're in charge," he said. "There has to be something left for them when that time comes."

Development is changing the entire Gulf Coast from Cancun, Mexico, to Key West, Fla., Dokken said. He said the population in those areas is growing at a time when rising sea levels and stronger and more frequent hurricanes are making the region more vulnerable to environmental changes.

Mahoney said that on the Alabama Gulf Coast, one of the biggest immediate environmental threats is drainage.

"I'd say 85 percent of our pollution problems stem from stormwater runoff; the pollutants washing into our streams, the siltation that clogs the waterways and turns the water cloudy," Mahoney said. "We have to get a handle on that, but it's not going to be easy."

Watershed Watch members have worked throughout the decade to monitor water quality in the areas around Wolf Bay, Mahoney said.

Twice a month, members check factors such as the clarity, temperature and acidity of the water at 40 monitoring stations in and near the bay, Mahoney said. He said the testing kits used cost about $200 each and require about two hours of work for each test. The tests are conducted from piers, bridges and other locations along the shore.

Mahoney said the group is working to buy an electronic testing kit, at a cost of about $3,700, which will allow testing to be done in a few minutes. With a boat, which is another goal of the group, a few members could conduct tests in many other areas around the bay in a short time.

He said that over the years, members have realized that water quality monitoring and preservation involve more than protecting one part of Wolf Bay. He said another goal is to expand efforts to check waters in areas such as Perdido Bay.