DAPHNE, Ala. — Congressman Jo Bonner and Mayor Fred Small met Friday with emergency management agents, state department of transportation representatives and the media to view Lake Forest tributaries and discuss their erosion and sedimentation problems.

Stormwater runoff and remnants from development — beginning with construction of the Lake Forest community in 1971 — have found their way into the lake, creating dirty, shallow water, David Yeager, former director of the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program, has said. 

Rainfall threatens the vitality of homes on Gordon Court, which has been impacted by flooding from creeks on either side.

If the problem is not dealt with, “there’ll be more homes flooding,” said Ashley Campbell, site containment inspector.

“You’d have backups in each of the tributaries.”

Actually, a reported 25 to 30 houses across the Lake Forest subdivision could be threatened by high water, according to a Lake Forest Property Owners Association spokesperson.

To make matters worse, sedimentation has accelerated over the past few years and has steadily increased due to erosion.

“This is a big problem. It doesn’t get fixed on its own,” Bonner said. “It takes a methodical and strategic course of action.”

The city and state have been working together for approximately three years on this issue, Campbell said. Alabama

Department of Environmental Management has been informed of the situation but hasn't taken any actions, she said.

In the past, the Alabama Department of Transportation — after working on expansion projects to rights of way — has combatted drainage structural issues in a timely manner, according to Campbell.

“We’ve been working on putting some devices in on highway 90 to retain water (overflow),” Small said, of the city’s efforts to help the problem.

The group walked deep in the woods of Daphne’s largest single-family development, to see creeks’ erosion and sedimentation firsthand. The whole flood plain at D’Olive Creek — once filled with water and an ecosystem of fish and wildlife — is now dry and lifeless.

Another stop on the tour was the subdivision’s lake.

“All of this used to be 6 to 8 feet,” Small said, referring to a part of the water body now measuring no more than 2 or 3 feet.

“We have a critical issue here,” Campbell said. “The water quality and the ecosystem in the lake will be affected.”

“We’ve known there’s been a problem for a while. We now know (D’Olive) Creek is one of the main contributors,” she said.

And now, according to one state representative, there will be action.

“It’s going to be dealt with,” Bonner said.