“Visit Pensacola! You’ll love our shit!” There’s your Chamber of Commerce bumper sticker.
Like water sports? Fishing, swimming, water skiing? Come to Pensacola. But just don’t go in Bayou Texar for any of that. The Health Department has closed it for the umpteenth time due to excessive levels of fecal contamination.
It happens so often now, that the Health Department no longer calls it what it is like they used to. Now they’ve sanitized the warning. Now they just call it ‘bacteria.’ You have to call the Health Department to find out the nature of that bacteria. I called to ask. It’s the same as it has always been. Fecal bacteria.
What’s worse, the reaction to it is also the same. After having abandoned the study to find out the sources of the contamination years ago, the city and county officials continue to ignore the problem. Apparently, unless it has anything to do with BP, they’re not interested in cleaning up their own back yard.
The problem as I see it is still what it was five years ago with the first post in this thread, Lawsuit Perfect Storm Set In Pensacola.
It’s about who has the deepest pockets. But where Bayou Texar is concerned, it gets much worse. As documented here, there was a $65,000 fine awarded by a trial of Target Corp. for polluting Carpenter’s Creek. A study was authorized to find out all the sources of contamination into the Bayou, which starts in Carpenters Creek. Including the chronic fecal bacterial contamination. It was paid for from Target’s fine.
According to the UWF scientist that was going to do the study, the money was pulled before he got started. An no politician or environmental group, Emerald CoastKeepers and the Levin-Papantonio law firm included, give a damn about the shit in Bayou Texar. Heck, the residents surrounding the Bayou seem to be fine with it too!
It’s never really about the environment with these folks. It’s about money.
Those of us living in the City pay a part of our property tax for the clean up. What is being done with this money?
Also, I understand that Agrico Chemical Co. fertilizer plant agreed to a settlement of 70 million to property owners on Bayou Texar to compensate them for lost property values due to the contamination. What I don’t understand is why that money wasn’t used to clean up instead of compensate. If the Bayou was cleaned up, the property values would not be negatively affected and thus the property owners should have no claim.
Those of us who are paying taxes which are being used for the clean up (see first question), if it is being done, are not able to use Bayou Texar and many of us would not use it anyway since it is surrounded by private residences and access is very limited. I am not sure why we are paying taxes to provide a better situation for those living on the Bayou since they received compensation already. Kina like having your cake and eating it too.