Blog By: Erica Joan Radermacher

When picturing a map of the continental United States, it is easy to miss the narrow horseshoe-shaped bay situated just west of the Florida panhandle. This geographical feature, formally known as “Mobile Bay,” is of critical importance to Alabama, the greater Southeast, and beyond, due in tandem to the natural ecosystems and critical trade point. In recent years, the project widening the Mobile Bay Channel has highlighted tensions between environmental and economic interests.[i]

Marine dredging is the process of removing sedimentary deposits from the bottom of a body of water.[ii] Dredging is frequently performed for the purpose of keeping up or increasing the depth of navigable waterways.[iii] Since 2021, the U.S. Corps of Engineers have been working on a $366 million project to increase the depth of the channel in Mobile Bay by fifty feet.[iv] This project was initiated to bring larger ships into the Port of Mobile that can carry higher volumes of both imports and exports, offering the potential of an economic boost to the area.[v]

Proponents of dredging the channel have pointed out that the silt materials dredged from the Bay are to be utilized in a local project using a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) through their Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund (GEBF) to both restore and expand upon marsh habitats in the water next to the Dauphin Island Causeway.[vi] In the past, grants from the NFWF have been awarded to the state for projects such as the Restoration and Enhancement of Oyster Reefs in Alabama.[vii] This project planted more cultch material to reinvigorate the Bay’s oyster habitats that were effected by a variety of factors, such as erosion, predation, harvesting, and the long-lasting effects of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.[viii]

The NFWF’s investment in Mobile Bay’s coastal habitats is an example of how conservation efforts can coexist with economic advancements. In the age of the agency, states should not have to choose between their economic interests and conservation efforts when both can be simultaneously advanced.

Advocates of the dredging project also note that despite environmental concerns with coal, it has maintained its status as an important energy source for the United States, as well as a significant part of the exports out of the port of Mobile.[ix] Nearly ninety percent of coal mined in Alabama is exported, and Mobile ranks as the nation’s fourth-largest port for coal exports.[x] In 2022, the port was also the largest point of imports in the country.[xi] Considering the statistics for coal alone, it is easy to see how the port of Mobile is a key piece to the Alabama economy and how a disruption of developments for the port would ultimately set back the economy for both working Alabamians and big businesses.

Critics of the dredging are concerned about long-term environmental impacts of moving this vast tonnage of sediments. Perhaps the most vocal critic of dredging is that of the Mobile Baykeeper, an organization dedicated to guarding and improving the status of the waters of the Alabama coast, who filed an intent to sue the Corps in July 2024.[xii] The group points out that only one-fourth of the silt from the channel dredging project will be put to beneficial use and that the remaining three-fourths should be moved farther outside the Bay to prevent negative impact to other delicate Bay ecosystems.[xiii] The Baykeeper further maintains that a critical species present in Mobile Bay, the gulf sturgeon, will be harmed by the conclusion of the dredging project.[xiv] While the gulf sturgeon’s population in the Bay is debated, the Baykeeper also points to concerns of smothering oyster reefs and beds of seagrass.[xv]

The Corps has followed environmental regulations of the federal government’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.[xvi] The director of Mobile Bay’s estuary program, Roberta Swann, refers to other coastline development as being a more direct cause of disrupting Bay’s ecosystem.[xvii] In 2006, Dauphin Island property owners filed a lawsuit against the Corps blaming their dredging for serious land erosion on the island.[xviii] The parties reached a settlement in 2009, which resulted in restoration efforts to repair Dauphin Island’s beaches.[xix] This settlement shows that conservation efforts can be put into place after the fact and still make a positive improvement in the ecosystem.

Due to the delicate nature of the Mobile Bay ecosystems, the material moved from dredging the channel has, and undoubtedly will have, long-lasting effects. With the proper management of the remaining dredged material for restoration projects, the dredging project need not be a cause of tension between environmental groups and economic forces because of proven positive results stemming from collaboration, as opposed to combativeness.

[i] Dennis Pillion, Alabama Environmental Group, Fishermen Seek to End ‘Federal Mud Dumping’ in Mobile Bay, Inside Climate News, https://insideclimatenews.org/news/18092024/alabama-mobile-bay-federal-mud-dumping/ (last visited Oct. 12, 2024) [https://perma.cc/DG6T-5ZLV].

[ii] What is dredging?, NOAA, https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/dredging.html (last visited Oct. 12, 2024) [https://perma.cc/852C-3QVV].

[iii] Id.

[iv] Margaret Kates, $366 million Mobile Harbor project a ‘generational change’, CEO says, https://www.al.com/news/mobile/2024/07/366-million-mobile-harbor-channel-deepening-spurs-growth-at-the-port.html (last visited Oct. 12, 2024) [https://perma.cc/5FC4-FKPL].

[v] Id.

[vi] Nat’l Fish and Wildlife Found., Dauphin Island Causeway Shoreline Restoration Project-Phase II, https://www.nfwf.org/sites/default/files/2020-03/al-dauphin-island-causeway-ii-20.pdf (2020) [https://perma.cc/4RR6-RQQX].

[vii] Nat’l Fish and Wildlife Found., Restoration & Enhancement of Oyster Reefs in Alabama, https://www.nfwf.org/sites/default/files/2020-04/al-restoration-and-enhancement-of-oyster-reefs-13.pdf (2013) [https://perma.cc/KH9B-P7PP].

[viii] Id.

[ix] Pillion, supra note i.

[x] U.S. Energy Info. Admin., Alabama State Energy Profile: Alabama Quick Facts, https://www.eia.gov/state/print.php?sid=AL (last visited Oct. 12, 2024) [https://perma.cc/E53L-GVAH].

[xi] Id.

[xii] Mobile Baykeeper, Who We Are, https://mobilebaykeeper.org/who-we-are/ (last visited Oct. 12, 2024) [https://perma.cc/8GKN-6DLQ].

[xiii] Pillion, supra note i.

[xiv] Mobile Baykeeper, Demand an End to Federal Mud Dumping in Mobile Bay, https://mobilebaykeeper.org/programs/shipping-channel/ (last visited Oct. 12, 2024) [https://perma.cc/SU26-WZVB].

[xv] Pillion, supra note i.

[xvi] Id.

[xvii] Id.

[xviii] Dauphin Island Prop. Owners Ass’n v. United States, 90 Fed. Cl. 95 (Fed. Cl. 2009).

[xix] Id.