TheBanyanTree: NORTHERN LIGHTS

[NancyIee at aol.com]

April 28/29  04

There still is a lot of traffic on Midnight Pass Road. It's named for 
Midnight Pass, the free-running sea-opening between this island and the next. For 
decades. it ebbed and flowed with the tides, cleansing the bay waters, providing 
boat access to the inland waterway (the bays) from the Gulf.  In 1983, the 
pass, (as passes often do) started to migrate. It's Nature's Way, though a couple 
of home owners took issue with that, since their homes threatened to be 
washed into the Gulf. They asked for and received permission from the Corps of 
Engineers, a booby bunch as I ever heard. They stopped the pass migration with 
bull-dozers.  Mother Nature got irked, and closed the pass altogether, resulting 
in an end of boat access, the natural flushing of the bay, and resultant nasty 
pollution of the bay waters.  A group filed suit to reopen the pass, to no 
avail. It cost too much, the powers said, and there was no quarentee the pass 
would stay put once reopened.

Meanwhile, the two houses threatened fell into the sea anyway, though natural 
beach erosion. The public outcry concerning the pass closure stoppped any new 
permits being granted to protect them.

Then came the group's apparent success is getting the Corp of Engineers into 
considering reopening the pass. Then comes another group what said, leave it 
be, Nature wanted it closed, you're going to ruin the new environment of the 
bay, blah blah blah. Seems little fishes are being borned in the sludgy, weedy 
waters (no one can eat them, however, since they're full of mercury.)

The beach is washed out to sea, condos and homes are threatened, rock berms 
and sea walls are erected to try to stop the erosion. Rocks mean there are no 
beaches there. People who used to walk the beach can no longer find passage 
there. In essence, the public beaches are private, via piles of boulders.


Midnight Pass wants to make passage to the bay.  It will do it one way or 
another, damned be the homes and towering condos in the way.   It might just 
decide to come through where my house stands. Only the next hurricane can tell.

I think I'll keep in touch with my friends living inland, on hills.



NancyLee