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Making Connections in a Watery Realm The American Southeast looks solid on the map, but it is in fact defined by liquid: 2000 miles of the ocean's edge, hundreds of thousands of miles of rivers and streams, the diverse and ecologically critical Everglades, and almost half the remaining wetlands in the lower 48 states. From the Florida Keys to the mouth of the Rio Grande, the estuaries, coastal bays, mangrove swamps, and bayous support a jambalaya of fish and crustacean life, as well as endangered populations of Louisiana black bears, red-cockaded woodpeckers, and Florida panthers--all cheek by jowl with 53 million people. Every day, these wetlands are drained for corporate farms, paved over for strip malls, sucked dry by channelized, mechanized waterways. In Georgia, 10 square miles of wetlands disappear annually; in Louisiana, 50 square miles. Florida's coastal wetlands are being filled for still more tourist hotels and condominiums, gradually smothering the shoreline in asphalt and beach umbrellas. The waters that remain are regularly poisoned: six of the country's ten largest oil ports ring the Gulf of Mexico, and nearly every mile from Mobile Bay to Brownsville has been polluted by the oil industry. Petrochemical and pulp-and-paper plants discharge hundreds of tons of pollutants into the water and air, a toxic load matched only by the U.S. military, whose ware on the environment has left Superfund sites on many of its bases throughout the region. Waste has made life hazardous for many poor African-American communities, like those of Emelle, Alabama, home of the largest toxic-waste dump in the world; Columbia, Mississippi, where children play near barrels full of poisons; or Tifton, Georgia, where a failed steel-mill-ash "recycler" sits one block from an elementary-school playground. In the Southeast (as elsewhere), toxic pollution is compounded by racism, increasing its deadly effect. In response, Sierra Club grassroots organizer John McCowen provides, as he says, "a cultural bridge" between minority communities and the traditionally white Club. "The bottom line is, whites and blacks are sitting on these dumps," says McCown. "To the extent they are divided, polluters are benefiting from the division." The Sierra Club's first step toward saving the Southeast is to halt the destruction of both natural and human habitats. Club activists have helped, for example, to pass a "Forever Wild Land Acquisition Trust" bill in Alabama; to prevent woodchip mills from denuding the Tennessee River Valley; to enforce existing laws and pass new ones designed to curb polluting industries; and to enable dozens of small communities throughout the region to say no to unwanted landfills, incinerators, and nuclear-waste storage facilities. In Georgia, the Club helped pass a law requiring that the vitality of entire river basins be considered in drawing up water-quality plans; and its Delta Chapter has formed a committee to preserve the habitat of the 200 to 300 remaining Louisiana black bears. The desperate work of reversing destruction goes hand in hand with the satisfaction of restoring an abused ecosystem to health. This work includes establishing a chain of marine sanctuaries within and around the Gulf; winning protection for rivers like the Little, the Suwannee, the Pearl, and the Atchafalaya; creating interconnecting greenways of trails and parks in urban areas; and linking the uplands with riparian and wetland habitats. Finally, people must also be linked. The Sierra Club recognizes that neither the Southeast no any other region can be healthy and whole so long as poor and powerless communities are targeted for environmental sacrifice. More Information Hurricane Opal impact on the Gulf Coast The South Florida Environmental Reader is an electronic newsletter covering environmental topics of interest to South Florida. Back to the Everglades by Norman Boucher (Technology Review, MIT: Aug./Sept. 1995) covers problems and restoration efforts for the Everglades. Photo courtesy Philip Greenspun. Up to Top |
