Shady Deals on Alabama Coast
It shouldn’t surprise me. I used to work for the State of Alabama in Gulf State Park and witnessed first-hand the rape of our coast at the whim of politicians. So when I found out that much of the $85.5 million from the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) funds from BP are going to build a lodge and meeting facility I didn’t faint…isn’t this how Alabama politicians work it?
Never mind that the convention center has been in the plans for years since the old one was destroyed by…what was it…Ivan? Long before the oil spill occurred and people started figuring out how to use natural resource restoration funding to build more developments on the coasts…and thus destroy the very thing the funds are supposed to restore.
Louisiana, the most hard-hit state from the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill is using $340 million to restore four barrier islands and create two fisheries laboratories. That makes total sense. Imagine….using money designated to restore the natural resources to actually RESTORE NATURAL RESOURCES! What a concept! Bravo Louisiana.
But back to Governor Bentley of Alabama. He said that the first money Alabama will spend for the convention center will address the loss of human use from the oil spill. That’s some mighty smooth pretzel logic there governor.
“In addition to its catastrophic impact on local fishermen and tourism, the BP oil spill dealt a severe blow to our pristine beaches and sensitive environmental areas,” said U.S. Representative Jo Bonner, R-Alabama. So the way to restore our Alabama pristine beaches and sensitive environmental areas is to destroy them through the construction process. Of course. That’s makes sense…said no one ever.
The second project in Alabama will use $2.3 million in Mobile County to restore oyster beds over 300 acres. The third project will spend $5 million in Baldwin County to create an oyster breakwater and living shoreline in Weeks Bay. Both of these projects make total sense in that they utilize funds designated for N A T U R A L R E S O U R C E R E S T O R A T I O N. The old saying, throw the dog a bone, seems applicable perhaps. Of the $92.8 million Alabama is receiving, 92% goes to construction projects in Gulf State Park. Development. Oysters in Mobile County get 2% and oysters in Weeks Bay get 5%. So 7% of this ‘natural resource restoration’ funding goes to doing what its supposed to do.
But back to project number one. Thrown into the mix of the $85.5 million is an environmental research and educational facility (sort of like the one Auburn University was already planning on building here???), trail construction and an interpretive center. I didn’t hear of trails in the park being damaged by the oil spill…did you? Nor did the old convention center get destroyed by the oil spill.
I completely support environmental education but the funds are supposed to restore the natural resources that were damaged during the oil spill. Can the governor and his cronies read? Can someone find them a dictionary? My BS radar is beeping when words like environmental and education are grouped with a huge convention center construction project.
While tourism is at the highest numbers ever in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach over the past two years, politics remains the same in this state…my home state…where shady deals continue to thrive. Storm clouds loom over this news and Governor Bentley only adds to the abuse of our coastline…unless you put money and development over natural resources. Then bravo gubner.
6 Replies to “Shady Deals on Alabama Coast”
I’m ‘liking’ the article, not the content…
SOSDD !
Standard fare where Alabama politics are concerned !
I love the geography of my home state. I love the beach, the rivers, the mountains, the forests and the fertile fields and valleys. I despise the politics. I’m not holding my breath that it will ever change, it’s been the way it is now for all of my 53 years.
They’ll piss it away the same way they did the last 50 some million. What happened to the money allocated for the rebuild in 2004? PRIOR to Ivan….
Political agenda is pretty transparent here. Trying to paint a convention center construction project as environmental restoration (or closely related economic development, in the best interest of the state) insults the intelligence of Alabama residents and others who treasure the beauty of the gulf coast. I’m pretty sure the BP funds were not intended as a political slush fund.
I am just a snowbird in this beautiful coast land, but I have come to love the beaches and winters. My thought on this is why destroy any land between the road and the water? I personally think any construction should be north of the highway. If you have never driven down the A1A in Florida, you can’t imagine how frustrating it is to look for the ocean and only see skyscrapers built by greedy developers.