Dimensions - Winter 2018 - 2

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Preserving Water Quality in the
Bayou La Batre Watershed
A comprehensive watershed management plan has

of existing municipal buildings and infrastructure,

recently been completed to help the City of Bayou La

including police, fire, and emergency response facilities

Batre and neighboring communities restore and protect

as well as the community's wastewater treatment and

more than 19,500 acres of watershed in southern Mobile

stormwater management systems; and examined

County, Alabama. Funded by the National Fish and

the vulnerability of key industrial resources, such as

Wildlife Foundation's Gulf Environment Benefit Fund,

commercial fishing vessels and seafood processing areas.

the plan provides recommendations for conservation,
natural habitat improvements, water quality restoration,

Enhancing Resilience

and community development within Bayou La Batre's

The team then modeled likely impacts from future

tidally influenced watershed, which flows southwest into

storms and sea level rise and assessed potential

Portersville Bay and the Mississippi Sound.

vulnerabilities within the watershed, including its urban

Preserving Regional Heritage

areas, forests, wetlands, and agricultural lands. Working
closely with residents and community representatives,

The Bayou La Batre Watershed is vital to the coastal

Dewberry created a plan that addressed options for

region's economy, which has relied upon commercial

restoring water quality, relocating critical infrastructure,

fishing, shipbuilding, farming, and related businesses

protecting the watershed from the impact of future

for generations. With its ecological resources severely

storms and development, increasing resilience for local

impacted by Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater

industries, and creating waterfront-related ecotourism

Horizon oil spill, the city required a visionary plan to

opportunities. The plan will be managed by the Mobile

address the restoration and protection of its natural

Bay National Estuary Program, a voluntary, non-

resources as well as measures to enhance resilience for

regulatory organization that promotes a community and

its coastal industries. Dewberry examined the regional

culturally based approach to watershed management

aquaculture, including ecological habitats, marshes,

in the Mobile Bay Watershed, spanning portions of

and shoreline areas; studied the location and capacity

Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee.

Known as the "Seafood Capital of Alabama,"
Bayou La Batre relies heavily on the 19,500-acre
watershed for its regional economy.

2 Dimensions

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http://www.dewberry.com/news/blog/post/blog/2017/07/20/preserving-the-cultural-heritage-of-a-gulf-coast-community
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Dimensions - Winter 2018
