Should the Mobile Bay Bridge be built? We first crossed Mobile Bay with the earthen causeway (Battleship Parkway) and blocked the fresh water delta from the bay. Some say it needs to be elevated. Then we built the tunnel (Bankhead) and blocked the river from deeper draft ships. Some say it should have been a bridge. Then we built the Wallace Tunnels with the hairpin Interstate 10 turn to avoid Christ Church and downtown Mobile. Some say it should go straight to the Africatown Bridge, but we have no raised expressway on Water Street. When Nick Holmes designed the Mobile Bay Bridge it made Mobile look more like a Tampa, San Francisco or a New York bridge-draped skyline. Will a bridge overshadow downtown or allow traffic to pass by? Or will the absence of a bridge stop traffic from getting to Mobile? Ten years from now no bridge will predetermine one future. We will have terrible frequent traffic problems that will do two things, stop people from getting to downtown Mobile, and route Interstate 10 traffic around and away from Mobile. Mobile can be a shrinking city, or the center of Mobile Bay. To cut off Mobile Bay traffic flow will lead the Eastern Shore to become a new commercial business skyline and hurt downtown Mobile. To fail to connect Mobile and Baldwin County with a bridge is to fail to connect the dots… we need to think regional and build the beautiful Mobile Bay Bridge.

http://blog.al.com/live/2010/08/underwater_gulf_oil_plume_22_m.html

Winds and tides are stirring up subsurface oil that is washing up on the beaches at coastal Alabama media reports say. Oil has long been suspected beneath the surface and will appear on and off for a long time.

The Mississippi Sound was opened for oyster harvesting which does not really make sense given the way the oyster filter oil.

Oil penetrates previously pristine Mississippi marsh, weeks after well cap

Published: Monday, August 09, 2010, 5:00 AM     Updated: Monday, August 09, 2010, 12:51 PM

Ben Raines, Press-Register

View full size(Press-Register/Ben Raines)Swirls of oil float at the edge of stained marsh grass inside Horn Island’s Garden Pond, one of several marshes on the island’s interior, on August 8, 2010. The oil penetrated deep into the green marsh grass, coating the stalks from the mud to about 18 inches up.

HORN ISLAND, Miss. — Weeks after BP capped its runaway well, a greasy band of oil appeared on the grasses fringing Garden Pond, a previously pristine interior marsh.

Glops of deep brown oil floated on the surface of the saltwater pond Saturday and appeared to be scarcely weathered, compared to much of the oil that has come ashore. The oil penetrated deep into the green marsh grass, coating the stalks from the mud to about 18 inches up.

The stain on the grass around the pond looked like a dirty black ring that one might see in a bathtub, although the grass still seemed vigorous.

Horn Island is part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore run by the National Park Service, which includes Petit Bois, Ship and Cat islands, as well as land in Florida. The undeveloped island is open to the public but accessible only by boat.

Other Press-Register exclusive
stories by this reporter:

Tests suggest oil dispersant washing up on Alabama beaches Some say effects of Deepwater Horizon spill will be felt for years to come

BP buys up Gulf scientists for legal defense, roiling academic community

Video: Low-oxygen dead zone found on seafloor off Alabama coast

Whale sharks unable to avoid oil spill (with video)

Read all of Ben Raines’ work

Horn lies about 10 miles south of Pascagoula and is popular with birders because of the diverse habitat, ranging from forested areas to dune fields covered in prickly pear cactuses.

Made famous by the artwork of Walter Anderson, Horn Island’s numerous salt ponds are connected to the Mississippi Sound by small creeks that allow the tide to flush in and out. Park officials said the tide likely carried the oil into the marsh sometime in the last week, with much of it coming in underwater instead of floating on the surface.

Rows of boom surrounding the mouth of the creek appeared not to have any oil on them. Such boom can catch only floating oil.

Mats of floating oil were present in the Garden Pond, as well as in the narrow channels that finger into the marsh.

Marsh periwinkles, the small snails found in coastal marshes by the thousands, could be seen clinging to the grass stems, bits of sticky oil present on their shells. Hermit crabs prowled the water’s edge, their shells also stained.

Clumps of oysters in the creek were smeared with a goopy layer of oil. A large blue crab encountered by the Press-Register raised its claws in defense of a small pool of water when approached but didn’t attempt to flee or bury itself.

Encountered again about 30 minutes later, the crab had expired, its claws hanging limp, small clumps of oil clinging to the mouth parts used for breathing and eating.

While there was a good deal of oil present in the pond, cleaning it would be challenging, as it coated every stalk of grass, every piece of driftwood and the mud bottom that the plants are growing from.

Ed Cake, a Mississippi biologist, visited the island over the weekend. He said that machinery is not typically allowed in wild areas like Horn Island and noted that few tools in the cleanup arsenal would be suited to the marsh, with the possible exception of various microbes and enzymes designed to degrade oil in delicate habitats.

Some of the large glops of oil floating in the creeks would best be collected by hand, he said.

“I think that marsh will recover on its own, but slowly. The oil is already turning to sheen and flowing out of there. The animals are stressed but mostly surviving,” Cake said. “It looks bad, but I’m not totally disheartened. It will be a great opportunity to study how these places recover. You don’t want anybody trying to get in there and clean that stuff up with machines. They will do more damage than the oil.”

The Press-Register explored a few of the other marsh ponds along the island but did not find oil in them. Garden Pond is fairly close to the east end of the island, which received heavy doses of oil several times during the last several months.

Crews have cleaned the Horn beaches, but tarballs are still easy to find around the island’s tip, both buried in the sand and rolling in the surf, some as large as softballs.

The grass beds just offshore of the island appeared healthy and oil free, inhabited by crabs, shrimp and small fish.

© 2010 al.com. All rights reserved.

The Grand Bay Savannah of the Mississippi Sound digests oil and like oyster beds, salt sea, blazing sun and hurricanes begins the cleaning of oil deposits that Mother Nature does best. The loss of turtle nesting at Horn Island and skimmer nests on Sand and Pelican Island and fish and shrimp spawning destruction in estauaries like the one shown above will be slow in recovery, but the process has begun. Now we can turn our attention to tropical weather, and fully appreciate our place of observation more than influence. Even our long running economic slump reminds us of our place and need for patience to out last hard times.

Closing the Maconda oil well in the Gulf ends the first chapter of one of the largest accidental environmental events in history, that happened to impact coastal Alabama head on. The lingering question will be debated for years as we study the impact on our fish species and birds and sea turtles, and the lesser understood micro organisms and eco systems of our estuary to deep sea food chain. The good news is these species were already at risk from habitat and harvest issues, so now the attention may create better understanding. And we may get an electric car industry as well. Like a hurricane, change is the life force that makes the rest of this story even more important to follow…. until the next story replaces it, like a hurricane.

Now that the well has a cap hope has come to the surface. But the farce remains the largest message. Not the accident failure but the hypocracy that the greatest nation and the largest pile of money is so inept. That we build a $5 million boom and take it down a week later. That we build a berm between two sand bars. That we pile sand and shovels and skimmers in futile exercises that pail in comparison to the might force of nature that cleans up our mess, despite our damage done by trying. Those on the ground and in the water that live here can only shake our heads. What if it was a disease, a terrorist attack, or even a hurricane, have we gotten so big that we cant do the smallest things right, do some good, do no harm in the process, and dont be false in our actions that are superficial and meaningless. 100 days later we have learned a valuable lesson, that we are inefficient as a governing body, and fail to act with the strength that has made our nation great the last two centuries.

I was asked to write this article from two points of view - one as an Episcopal priest and the other as a licensed psychotherapist (LPC, LMFT).

As I pray daily about the oil spill and what we have done to God’s creation, I am reminded of the petition in the Litany for Ash Wednesday from the Book of Common Prayer:

“For our waste and pollution of your creation,

and our lack of concern for those who come after us,”

“Accept our repentance, Lord.”

This is a time we need to reread Genesis and contemplate our place in God’s creation and our responsibility to God and one another and those who come after us.

We live in a culture in which many things are disposable. Do you remember when basketball games were routinely interrupted because a player had lost a contact lens? Not any more! Now most players wear disposable lenses and if one is lost, they go to the bench and get another. Nowadays we don’t have to worry about cameras. Just take the 24 pictures, remove the film and throw the camera away. It’s disposable.

Just consider all the disposable things in our culture: diapers, paper plates, soft drink cans, plastic syringes, razors, etc. I am told that there are now disposable wedding gowns! Now, we know some of the problems that come with this disposability mania. We are trashing our oceans and landscapes. Unless we learn to recycle more, we will choke on our own discarded junk. (Many of those items mentioned are petroleum products.)

It seems obvious to me that we need to become better stewards of creation. It also seems obvious that we need to change our lifestyles and go back to a simpler way of life. The still unfolding disaster in the Gulf of Mexico points to our interconnectedness. Our need for gasoline or other petroleum products has caused the fishers of the Gulf Coast to lose their jobs, has killed marine life, has affected the whole food chain and ecosystems, as well as the economy. Yes, we are part of a system dependent upon each piece of the system to survive. We can individually and corporately do something to promote our survival - that is to show our concern not only with our lips but with our lives as well. Cut back, use less, think green, live green …          

I quote the Bishop of the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast, the Rt. Rev. Philip M. Duncan, II:

                        “ All of us need to be concerned with the environmental stewardship we are called to exhibit and how we can impact what happens, as we work in the beach restoration projects. In the story of creation, we are reminded that it was God’s word that brought creation into being. It is not incidental that our words can make a difference as we speak out, not only to assist in the immediacy of this catastrophe, but also to affect systemic change that seeks to protect the precious gifts which God has given us to enjoy and use, within the limits of our ability to not misuse them.”

As a systems theorist, I see our interconnectedness and kinship with one another and God. Evidence of our kinship with God is our capacity for fellowship with God. There is a God-shaped hole in our psyche that nothing but God can fill. Who created that God-shaped hole? God did when He made us in His image. If all this be true, if we are made in the image of God, what does it all mean? What are the implications for our living? Let me give you three and you can write these down.

            • FIRST -Each of us is an incredibly precious original design of Almighty God.

•THE SECOND TRUTH - Though God’s image in us is blurred, it can be restored through Jesus Christ.

• FINALLY - There is a third truth that follows from our being made in the image of God: we must train ourselves to see God’s image in every other person and in His creation.

The end is not in sight and there will be lasting results not only on the environment but on our psyches as well. There is not a question that anxiety and depression are on the rise, suicides directly related to the oil spill have already taken place. Some will no doubt be affected by Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression, and/or anxiety. Look for signs such as:

                        - depressed mood most of the day, nearly every day

- recurrent and intrusive recollections of the event, including images, thoughts or   perceptions

                        - recurrent distressing dreams of the event

                        - acting or feeling as if the event were recurring (flashbacks)

                        - intense psychological distress at exposure to cues that symbolize or resemble the event

                        - efforts to avoid thoughts, feelings or conversations associated with the event

                        - efforts to avoid activities, places or people that arouse recollection of the event

                        - markedly diminished interest or participation in significant activities

                        - feeling of detachment from others

                        - restricted range of affect (unable to have loving feelings)

                        - sense of foreshortened future (feelings of hopelessness)

                        - difficulty falling or staying asleep or excessive sleep

                        - irritability or outbursts of anger

                        - difficulty concentrating

                        - hyper-vigilance

                        - unexplained and significant weight loss

                        - fatigue or loss of energy nearly every day                                                       

                        - feelings of worthlessness or excessive and inappropriate guilt

                        - recurrent thoughts of death

                        - restlessness or feeling keyed up or on the edge

                        - exaggerated startle response

                                                (From the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)

If these symptoms affect you or someone you know, seek professional help.

The oil spill affects us both psychologically and spiritually because we are mind, body and spirit. There is a direct line between you and Almighty God, from His great heart to yours. Because we are made in His image, we hear, and by God’s grace, we sometimes respond. It is time we treated God’s creation as sacred and each other as sacred as well. As Genesis 1:31 states, “And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.” Please let us treat all of God’s creation, the earth and all that is therein as good and as God’s. Our response needs to be two-fold, one toward the environment and the other toward one another.  

The Rev. Dr. Walter L. Elam, III

Licensed Professional Counselor

Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist

www.blacktide.tv

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128130198

A slow moving hurricane is how the oil spill is described by the leader of a Green Evangelical movement.
On National Public Radio this Sunday morning he said this may be “a defining moment” for Christains to demand that the business of business not damage the creation of God…. and make this cause mainstream. He sites that the abortion debate was once a mainstay of the Catholic faith only and slowly went to become a cause of mainstream faiths of all kinds. He hopes that the worst environmental crisis in recent American memory will rally all faiths to join the issues of protecting our environment as a sacred gift from God, as practiced by the first Americans, the American Indian, for example. Alabama Governor Bob Riley has called for today to be a Day of Prayer. The lead editorial of the Sunday Press Register is perhaps for the first time in the history of Alabama’s oldest newspaper, a prayer.

Locals in the clean up crews say the shovels of sand are a joke. The booms and boats are a joke And the money will be gone before the worst gets here.

Dr. Bob Shipp, a respected local marine scientist, made this statement while discussing how the despersant is just sending the oil below the surface into the micro food chain that is killing eggs and fish from spawning shrimp to tuna across the deep Gulf of Mexico. Dr. George Crozier said this is not the “end of the Gulf”.