FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
Caine O'Rear - Midday Mobile - Wednesday 8-21-24
This is Midday Mobile with Sean Sullivan on FM Talk 10065. But 135 FM Talk 10065 Midday Mobile, glad to have you here on this Wednesday. Time to check in with my buddy David McCraery at LCF MotorCars. We talked about the great selection of trucks the other day, which I did enjoy, but you did a great selection of finance and options as well. We do, Sean. We've got bank finance and credit unions rates at low signal digits. And then we've got the buy here, pay here program. We had a customer this morning come in, a mutual friend of mine and yours now, Gregory. He's a listener to your show during the day. Hopefully, we'll get him riding this afternoon. He's supposed to be coming back to see us. We have that all the time. Just come in and say, "I heard you on the radio. I heard you on 106.5." This particular guy said, "I know if you're not doing it right, Sean, blow the place up." For sure. I said, "Not only if I bought vehicles from you, I had my mama sell a vehicle through you." That says everything, how much I trust you. So tell folks like Gregory and everybody else how to find you and get out there and check out the options. We're at Highway 90 and Plantation in Theodore. It's one mile south of I-10. It's at 15A. You can give us a call at 2513-75068 or just go to the website, lcmotercars.com. Thanks, David. Now we get that button. All right, you too. There goes David McCreary at LCM MotorCars. Yeah, you'll see those stickers on the back of my vehicle and my daughter's vehicle as well. And heck, you pull up at the traffic light and there's a whole bunch of them out there. All right, Benjamin began the show that we're joined by Cano Rear Communications Director from Mobile Baykeeper. Good to have you in the studio. Great to be here. Thanks for having me again. Heard it was a good turnout last night. Yeah, we had a good turnout. We had a town hall in Fair Hope last night concerning this dredging project and the disposal of dredge spoil into the bay. We had one a week before down in Theodore off VIP had a really passionate crowd for that one. A lot of the commercial seafood workers, people who live on the water, a lot of generational folks who've seen the effects of in-bait disposal with their own eyes. Yeah, I think this is, I guess, for a lot of the passion that we saw. Yeah, people being out there and seeing it, but like the elevator talk on this cane. What are y'all, what's at question here? What do you want? You know what I'm saying? It's a simplified that this is the thing that y'all want to keep from happening. What is it? It's the in-bait disposal and that means it is, you know, they're dredging, the deepening and widening project started in 2020. The initial phases of the project will culminate in 2025. After that, there will be continuous maintenance. We've got to keep it dredged. 20 plus years. It's got to keep it dredged. So for that maintenance dredged material, we are advocating against in-bait disposal back into the bay. We want it to be put into beneficial use if possible, or just taken out of the bay, whether that's offshore, whether that's in upland dikes. In-bait disposal was banned in Mobile Bay from 1986 to 2012. It was approved in 2012 under an emergency measure for budgetary reasons and it's remained in place since then when they were doing it in the setting. Wouldn't that the idea that it was going to be when they changed that there was going to be a temporary thing? Yeah. It was supposed to be a temporary band aid that has become protracted and we've seen the effects of that over the last decade and anyone who fishes, oysters, shrimps, can attest to that pretty clearly. Is it, you know, we're talking about the turbidity in the bay. Is it, you know, so what's the ratio? Is it 70% that they're already planning on using for beneficial use for the... 70% is a national goal the core wants to reach by 2030. So that really... So that doesn't mean we're there yet at 70/30. Yeah. I mean, that's for all dredging projects across the country. That 70% their goal would be that 70% doesn't get put back into that waterway or any waterway where dredging occurs across the country. Okay. But then the 30% give or take here, that's the portion that is allowable. But I know in conversations we have with William Strickland here that I think Chesapeake and Biloxi and other places, they're 100% beneficial use, am I correct, that they're not putting anything back into the waterway? Well, yeah. It's that specific waterway. Yeah. Beneficial use can be somewhat of an elastic term. In-bay disposal is what we're trying to focus on. In-bay disposal has been banned in the Chesapeake state of Maryland has banned it. There is a little bit going on in Virginia. Those parts of the Chesapeake Port of Savannah is a good project to look at. For comparison, there is no in-bay disposal. There, all of the dredge boil goes on upland dikes on the banks of the Savannah River. Port of New Orleans, all of the dredge boil goes offshore. Some of it is being put offshore right now in Mobile Bay. Some of it is going into old oyster shell sites that were mined as far back as the 70s. Oyster reefs being dredged for construction materials, things like that. We feel like it's a small amount. What we're concerned about is the 90 million cubic yards that's going to happen over the next 20 years. This is a long-term, continuous thing. Both that in-bay, any of us spend time in the bay, you see the dredge rigs. Is it just spraying out one end that's away from the area of being dredged? Is it being containerized and then off-loaded and piled up, how do they do it? They're spraying at its open-water disposal, open-water dispersal. They're spraying it. You're dredging over here. We're dredging out the ship channel. Then it goes through the dredge pipe, and somewhere else it's spraying out this muddy water. Yeah. Exactly. They're saying it's in areas that are not specific to seagrass bed locations, but this water, when the dredge boil is dispersed, it goes everywhere. There's toxic material in some of that dredge. If you've been around it, it smells pretty bad. Richard Rutland, who's a fishing guide with cold-blooded fishing, describes the middle mobile bay along the ship channel as being akin to a dead zone. Anyone who's out there on the water and sees it with their own eyes knows it's an issue. It's common sense. There is some natural sedimentation that occurs in your neighborhood. Sure. That's why we have a delta. I think it's to the tune of about 2.8 million cubic yards a year. That settles naturally. It's not like the settling you're seeing with open water dispersal, which is covering the bay with 1/2 inches of mud, smothering seagrass, smothering oyster reefs. Here's something I was thinking about a couple of weeks ago, I think talked about it on the show. I hadn't talked with you all about it, but if we're spending this money, government money, out there through a state level, through BP money, and all that, to do these things I believe in like restoring oyster reefs. All these things, not just to restore the oyster reef, but it's also like starting an engine. If you can get the water clearer, then oysters can be deeper and they continue to filter and see grasses and all these things, you'd kick this thing off. I believe in these projects, but it does seem like one hand, once again, doesn't know what the other is doing. Here we are spending government money to do these things to try to clear the bay up, to start this natural process of more oysters, more grass, getting clear. At the same time, the other hand, is putting sediment out there that's clouding the water. We're fighting against ourselves in that. And we're not against the deepening and widening of the channel, it's simply the disposal of the direction. Yeah, you want the channel, yeah. Bankkeeper says, you want the deeper, wider channel, it's not about that dredging, it's about where the material goes afterwards. And we feel like this is a way to cut corners, and it's a short-sighted approach to something that's going to have long-term generational effects if it continues to pace. Can both things be done? I think absolutely. Because you hear from one side that says, "Y'all the time on this proposed lawsuit could take away all these jobs, the port's such a big deal here, huge here that you're putting these jobs at risk, the business is immobile at risk with this. Is there a way to have the port functioning and growing and doing all these great things at the same time not putting this sediment in the water?" Absolutely. There are separate issues. Katie Britt announced $47 million had been appropriated, it's going through committee, Senate Budget Appropriations Committee, is available for environmental mitigation, for maintenance dredging that's, I believe, 15 million more than last year. So funding is there. It's a matter of the core, being able to change their plan, sometimes with federal government projects, intransigence, inertia is a problem. In some of these, it takes a long time to turn the battleship around. But in that 15 million additionally now, that would be, and I don't know the math on it, but whatever it costs to take a cubic yard of sediment to an upland site or not in bay, and then you just extrapolate it from that, but those, I'm just trying to balance this because people are saying that on one side that this thing will collapse everything with the port, but I mean, it's not the cost of it. Right now, we're about to, by 2025, have the ship channel open at the new depth. March 2025 is the original completion date. Okay, which I'm a big proponent of, but you're asking, "Hey, while y'all do this, let's just take the dirt elsewhere." What do I say when people say that this is too much that they won't be able to do it? This is going to make it so expensive they're not going to do this. I mean, other projects have refuted that argument, and it's reasonable, it can be done. It's achievable. We wouldn't be making these demands. We're not calling for some new Jerusalem, why is Alabama getting the short shrift once again when it comes to these other places? Take these environmental... Because of the course, dredging, as you said, is being required to not dump in bay in places or in waterway. Right. So it's not... Copperable ports, the portimobile. Okay. So... That are even bigger. And so the core can do it there. Are they unwilling here or do you think it's, like you said, turning that battleship around? Do you think it's...? Well, I mean, you can speculate on a million different things here. I mean, it's probably they felt like they could get away with it here. We submitted more than 60 pages of comment letters during the comment process. The core said there was no environmental impacts, no significant environmental impacts that were going to be done to the bay as a result of this project. And we thought that was a farcical analysis. But so do you believe that the research wasn't done? Because if you believe it's pretty obvious that it turns out to lead to higher turbidity. Do you believe they didn't do the research in the first place or smothered it or what do you think happened? Well, you can do any kind of study to confirm whatever end you want to achieve. What do you mean, statistics? Why? It's the old quote. I already have it here. But there's a funny one about that. All right. Let's do this. Can you hold on and we'll go to the news. Come right back. Sure. Okay. More with Cano Rear. We'll get your questions as well. He is communication director for Mobile Baykeeper. And we'll find out if there are more meetings coming up in the future. This is Midday Mobile with Sean Sullivan on FM Talk 106.5. All right, got 150 FM Talk 106.5 Midday Mobile. Glad to have you along and good to talk to the communication director of Mobile Baykeeper Cano Rear meeting last night, Eastern Shore. You'll have one week before Mobile County looks like they were well attended. And it is interesting to hear the long-term perspective. I've talked about the stories I heard from buddies of mine's grandfathers about what Polecat Bay used to look like. That's the one. And but you can get that actually with this situation and it doesn't have to be hundreds of years. It's gonna be decades. You know what? It used to look like this. It used to look like this. Here's the places they don't spoil before. So I mean, there are some recent changes going on with the stupidity in the bay. Yes. I mean, since the dredging deepening project started in 2020, I talked to any phishing guide, people who have testified at our recent town halls. I mean, they've definitely seen a change. We heard numerous emotional testimonies during our town hall off DIP about people who have grown up on the bay on the western shore for generations, growing up gigging flounder, you know, playing tag with muscles when man made this very emotional plea about his 19-year-old son is only gigged one flounder in his lifetime. And that was during a half-ass muddy Jubilee, I mean, he's visibly shaking teary-eyed. So it's very real to a lot of people. And you know, people on the industry thing, on the business side of things, people locate to this area because of quality of life. And it's my belief that our quality of life is tied to the quality of the bay, to the health of the bay. There are about 50,000 people that are impacted by the coastal Alabama seafood industry that work in it to some degree. When you factor in tourism, I mean, who knows what those numbers are, we are absolutely for the success of the port, the success of the city of Mobile of coastal Alabama. We believe you can have a healthy bay and a healthy economy. We think a healthy bay drives a healthy economy. You look at other places that have this that both can be done once again, that people didn't hear it earlier, that there can be a continued maintenance of a deepened and wide and ship channel that is so important for the port. And you can not have this 30% or whatever go back into the water. You believe that's those two things could exist in the same plane? Yeah. I mean, it's happened in Chesapeake Bay. They banned in bay disposal, the state of Maryland has. They're making it work. The Army Corps knows how to do it. It's a matter of political will. We know that the money is there, Senator Katie Brett, God bless her, announced $47 million, just made it through committee, Senate Appropriations Committee, for maintenance dredging of this project. I believe that's 15 million more than last year. So then you're saying take that extra 15 million and don't put that stuff down, let's move it to an upland cider offshore. Exactly. Don says a question for your guest, a couple of years ago, I witnessed the dredge operation, a channel out of Byla battery, where there are studies performed to see how that operation affected the waters of Mississippi Sound. It sounds like to me, we had the same scenario as we do with very steam plant and the dilemma of the coal ash. I know people have looked into it. I'm not aware of any specific studies and their effect on the Mississippi Sound. I mean, we were very entrenched in that community down there. A lot of the shrimpers and a lot of the commercial oyster men, they can tell you straight up look you in the eye and talk about the detrimental effects they've seen from increased turbidity. They know it's not a way of life that can continue if things continue a pace the way they are. Yeah. There's different discussions. I mean, when you physically put that dredge spoil on top of the bottom, you eliminate smother whatever's there. But from my non-scientific, but I got to reach a lot of books, the turbidity in general is some of the bigger issue because now we're not having light get below, it depends on the time of year, from interest to feet deep, not getting further down, so therefore you can't have oysters, therefore you can't see grasses, all these things that would help clean the water further. Yeah. It's like... A jimbo matter, the famous angler eco-tourism guy says, it's like putting a tarp over your lawn. The grass isn't going to grow. That's what's happening with increased turbidity. With mud on the bottom, the seagrass can't photosynthesize. The fish aren't getting the food. They need to eat the upper part of mobile bay, the lower part of the delta. It's a very critical nursery for shrimp, shrimp, I mean, crabs. It's essential to the health of the overall bay and how that whole life cycle process works. But, yeah, I mean, it's a death knell for aquatic life. All right, I came before we wrap up. So we talked about these meetings you all have had. Will there be things going forward if people want to get involved in the process? Yes. We don't have any town halls actively scheduled. One thing I do want to mention is we are working to meet with the core and the year feature. Okay. We're hoping that those talks will be productive. If you want to learn more, you can go to savemobile bay.com. There's a lot of information there. You can get involved. You can get a sign if you want to. But educate yourself, help spread awareness, talk to your neighbors. We feel like the demands we are making are entirely reasonable. We feel like the feature of the health of the bay is at stake and we all want a good way of life. And the bay is essential to anyone who grew up here. It's the crown jewel of coastal Alabama. Sure. It's why we're here. It's why we're here. Yeah. You know, and then we can get back, get passes, then we can get back to me asking all questions about water quality for water and sewer services and runoff and all those kind of things. Yeah. Because there's all these things challenging the bay. I mean, it's almost like whack-a-mole, isn't it? Yeah, it feels like that sometimes. I appreciate what you all are doing. Thanks for coming in. Thanks for being on the show. Thanks, Sean. I'm Ken O'Rear, who's Communications Director with Mobile Baykeeper, joining us. All right, Paul Finebaum, show on the way next. Quick reminder to thinking about Paul Finebaum, got you thinking about college football, just a little bit longer here to get signed up in our college pick-em challenge for 2024. Fantastic prize back. You can see on our Facebook page from the folks at Spring Hill Ace Hardware. We got grills. We got Yeti Coolers. All that good stuff. But you got to get signed up and you can go to FMTalk1065.com and click the tab right there along the top for college pick-em. Or if you did it last year, just look through your email and look for college pick-em or run your pool and it'll just give you a link right there you can sign right back up and get in. Remember, we're just a little over a week from college football. Holy cow. All right, so check that out. Paul Finebaum, on the way next, talk to you all tomorrow. [MUSIC]