I find myself quoting an excerpt from the first line of today's editorial published by the Mobile Press-Register Editorial Board when I say "TO NO one's great surprise...".  However, I am altering the remainder of the sentence to say that it is no surprise the Press-Register is once again bashing Dauphin Island but this time with more emotion than I have seen in a very long time.  Read on...

From the Mobile Press-Register Editorial Board

No more sand piles on Dauphin Island

TO NO one's great surprise, Dauphin Island's incredible disappearing sand berm — now you see it, now you don't — has disappeared again.

More than $4 million worth of sand was washed away by the waves stirred up by Hurricane Gustav, which made landfall a good 200 miles from Dauphin Island. This is the second time in eight years the waters of the Gulf have swept away a berm built to protect the mainly private development on the island's fragile west end.

Here's the incredible part of the berm/berms: The public is paying good money to construct these sand piles. And Dauphin Island officials are pondering whether they should again ask Uncle Sugar in Washington to help them pound more sand.

Enough is enough.

The first berm was built in 2000, after Hurricane Georges caused major erosion on the island. That million-dollar barrier was breached within a year, and then Tropical Storm Isidore came along in 2002 and finished it off.

After Isidore, Dauphin Island officials decided that what the west end of the island needed was more sand. So they put together a berm reconstruction package and turned to the federal government for funding. Federal taxpayers ended up paying the lion's share of the bill.

The new berm had been in place just two weeks when two sections of it were wiped out in June 2007. The culprit was higher-than-usual tides — not a hurricane or even a tropical storm.

It appears that the effective life span of these berms is about two years — if you don't count the breaches caused by routine weather events.

Those who favor berm-building argue the sand barriers aren't meant to withstand major storms. Their purpose is to protect the west end of the island from relatively minor episodes of high water.

So, the argument is that taxpayers should pay — again and again — for berms that won't survive even a glancing blow from a storm like Gustav?

If Dauphin Island residents want to keep building berms in a futile effort to stop the Gulf's encroachment, they should cover the full cost of the projects.

The fact the islanders decided to establish a public beach on the west end doesn't mean that the homeowners' problem is now a state and national problem. Those who gamble on owning homes in such a high-risk area should be prepared to face the financial consequences.

Allowing Dauphin Island residents to pass most of the cost of their choices on to taxpayers in other places encourages the irrational policy of building berms that collapse in a matter of months.

It's time Dauphin Island officials seriously considered another option that has the potential to protect the entire barrier island: a full-scale beach renourishment project.

Beach renourishment seems to have worked in Gulf Shores. Dauphin Island residents can make a better argument for federal assistance if engineers and coastal experts determine renourishment would stabilize the barrier island and maintain it as a buffer for south Mobile County.