Years ago, it was safe-ish to swim in the waters along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. I remember splashing around in the brown waters, enjoying my time on the beach. Of course, this was before I discovered the emerald green waters of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach. Nowadays, the "wonderful Gulf Coast" has a small problem, a problem that in my younger years, I thought nothing about.
The water is toxic. When you drive along the beach, you don't see many people in the water. In fact, when you do, you can be damn sure that everyone around them that notices them doing it has that "ewwww!" look on their face. We have flesh eating bacteria and sewage in our waters, making it very risky to take a dip. When someone says they're going swimming on the beach, they're usually met with, "Why the hell would you swim in that?" ....I am one of those people. Usually the people swimming in the muddy brown water either has been living under a rock for a few years, or just really doesn't get....anything. People have died from this. It even affected the Louisiana Coast.
When I go to the Gulf Coast, I lay out on the beach, but I don't go into the water. I'll find a swimming pool, because kid piss in chlorinated water is better than our crappy, nasty coastal ocean water. Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful place to be, and I totally enjoy being on the coast. Just...don't touch the water.
I even remember someone saying to me once, "If I ever saw someone take a baby into that nasty water, I'd call DHS for child abuse!" Recently, a kid did swim in the water, and now she has a very nasty bacteria eating away at her ankles. Currently, the beaches are closed because they have discovered raw sewage that has been leaking for a few weeks into the water. Yep, Mississippi Gulf Coast is known as "The Toilet Bowl of the United States", and for good reason.
One half of the reason is pollution. Less educated people out there throw things out their car windows and litter our highways. They don't recycle because it's either too inconvenient to go to the recycling center or because they just don't care. In our town, you can request blue bins to put your plastics, paper, cardboard and metals in, and they come pick it up every Thursday. You don't realize how much stuff you throw away until you start to recycle them. I thought that I would only have a few bottles here and there....I was wrong. In just a week, I filled the bin up. Cereal boxes, food boxes, tin cans, shampoo bottles....I threw it all in there. I cook a lot of boxed food, so it added up quick, even when I broke the boxes down. But then again, lots of people from other states toss their trash and crap into the Mississippi River, since the river is pretty damn long and goes through a lot of states.
The other half of the problem is the barrier islands. If you take the ferry to Ship Island and head to the other side, the water is blue and beautiful. A few years ago, everyone debated blowing up the islands because they actually cause a barrier- keeping all the refuse in. However, there are forts and animal sanctuaries on the islands, so that was a moot point.
My advice? If you want to swim in the ocean, go to the other side of the barrier islands or take your ass to Orange Beach. Do yourself a favor and stay out of the water, unless you want to get a skin disease from swimming.
The water is toxic. When you drive along the beach, you don't see many people in the water. In fact, when you do, you can be damn sure that everyone around them that notices them doing it has that "ewwww!" look on their face. We have flesh eating bacteria and sewage in our waters, making it very risky to take a dip. When someone says they're going swimming on the beach, they're usually met with, "Why the hell would you swim in that?" ....I am one of those people. Usually the people swimming in the muddy brown water either has been living under a rock for a few years, or just really doesn't get....anything. People have died from this. It even affected the Louisiana Coast.
When I go to the Gulf Coast, I lay out on the beach, but I don't go into the water. I'll find a swimming pool, because kid piss in chlorinated water is better than our crappy, nasty coastal ocean water. Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful place to be, and I totally enjoy being on the coast. Just...don't touch the water.
I even remember someone saying to me once, "If I ever saw someone take a baby into that nasty water, I'd call DHS for child abuse!" Recently, a kid did swim in the water, and now she has a very nasty bacteria eating away at her ankles. Currently, the beaches are closed because they have discovered raw sewage that has been leaking for a few weeks into the water. Yep, Mississippi Gulf Coast is known as "The Toilet Bowl of the United States", and for good reason.
One half of the reason is pollution. Less educated people out there throw things out their car windows and litter our highways. They don't recycle because it's either too inconvenient to go to the recycling center or because they just don't care. In our town, you can request blue bins to put your plastics, paper, cardboard and metals in, and they come pick it up every Thursday. You don't realize how much stuff you throw away until you start to recycle them. I thought that I would only have a few bottles here and there....I was wrong. In just a week, I filled the bin up. Cereal boxes, food boxes, tin cans, shampoo bottles....I threw it all in there. I cook a lot of boxed food, so it added up quick, even when I broke the boxes down. But then again, lots of people from other states toss their trash and crap into the Mississippi River, since the river is pretty damn long and goes through a lot of states.
The other half of the problem is the barrier islands. If you take the ferry to Ship Island and head to the other side, the water is blue and beautiful. A few years ago, everyone debated blowing up the islands because they actually cause a barrier- keeping all the refuse in. However, there are forts and animal sanctuaries on the islands, so that was a moot point.
My advice? If you want to swim in the ocean, go to the other side of the barrier islands or take your ass to Orange Beach. Do yourself a favor and stay out of the water, unless you want to get a skin disease from swimming.
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