Like the human beings we are, sometimes emotion rules reason. Today the Press Register continues to bash the sand berm at Dauphin Island that washes away with most every hurricane events. Piling sand against mother nature, or fighting mother nature in any regard, is easily seen as fool hardy. The paper does not like the west end of Dauphin Island or the tax paying citizens any more than a Democrat. When it comes to sand as pork, the newspaper sees some gifts of government largesse funding as waste while others honorable, depending on where. All across America (Gulf Shores, the eastern shore of Mobile Bay, Little Lagoon, Perdido Pass, Biloxi, Pensacola Beach etc… beaches are piling sand and fighting erosion with government funds. BUT NONE OF THESE PROJECTS are also mitigating the US Government’s own mistakes like Dauphin Island, the real reason that the newspaper lacks reason in their opinion.

Dauphin Island erosion is like all of the other erosion projects plus the ADDITIONAL factor of the US Govt Corp of Engineer dredging has damaged the island’s existence. Experts and scientists at our own University of South Alabama admit the Mobile Ship Channel is liable for increasing the storm damage. Locals know sand along the Gulf coast migrates east to west. NASA satellite photos show for centuries Gulf Shores sand replenishes Fort Morgan sand that forms Dixie Bar which forms Sand Island and feeds Dauphin Island which flows to the west ends which flows to Petti Bois, Horn Island Cat etc… which are also vanishing. Why?

Since 1950’s the Mobile Ship channel is dredged and the sand is dumped at sea, lost forever. This interrupts the Mother nature hand off. Federal mitigation should pay to put the sand back, a condition unique to Dauphin Island. But when sand is piled at Gulf Shores where is the outrage. Port is pork, some pork is more reasonable. Daupin Island deserves it from an analysis of reason more than most sand berm projects on the Gulf coast because of the additional damage caused by Government dredging.