ridges. The amount of vegetation on the dune ridges has tended to stabilize 



them. 



POINT SOURCE DISCHARGES 



The South Alabama Regional Planning Commission has made an assessment of 

 both point and nonpoint sources of pollution in Mobile and Baldwin Counties 

 and the controls needed to meet the goals of Section 208 of the 1972 

 amendment to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. The South Alabama 

 Regional Planning Commission (1979), Friend et al . (1981), and D. W. Brady 

 (1979) are the primary sources of the following material, and should be 

 consulted for more detailed information. 



For purposes of this mapping study, point-source discharges have been 

 divided into two categories: industrial sources that discharge effluent that 

 may need chemical treatment; and municipal, semipublic and public sources 

 that discharge domestic effluent that can generally be treated biologically. 



In Mobile and Baldwin Counties there were 19 municipal waste-water point 

 sources with an aggregate discharge of 208 million liters per day (mid) (55 

 million gallons per day (mgd)) in 1977. There were 38 industrial process 

 waste-water sources with National Pollution Discharge Elimination System 

 (NPDES) permits, with an aggregate discharge of about 507 mid (134 mgd). 

 Also in the study area were 49 semipublic and private point sources of non- 

 permit effluents such as sanitary waste, cooling water, boiler blowdown, and 

 rain water runoff. Most of the industrial dischargers empty into Chickasaw 

 Creek and the Mobile River (Mobile quadrangle). The greatest volume of 

 discharge is from the two electrical generating plants, which discharge 

 cooling water and steam condensate, and paper mills. In contrast, most of 

 the pollution load comes from the paper mills and chemical plants. 



The majority of point dischargers in Baldwin County are municipal 



wastewater treatment plants, of which there are seven, and municipal lagoons, 



of which there are three. The industrial discharges in Baldwin County are 



from several industries in the vicinity of Bay Minette (Bay Minette 



quadrangle), and about five seafood distributors in Bon Secour (Pensacola 

 quadrangle) . 



Mobile County is more heavily populated and industrialized than Baldwin 

 County, with nearly three times as many point source dischargers. There are 

 12 municipal wastewater treatment plants and several municipal lagoons in the 

 county. Industrial dischargers include about a dozen chemical and mineral 

 plants, most of which are located either in the Mobile area, the area around 

 Bucks, or Theodore (Mobile quadrangle). Two large power plants are located 

 on the Mobile River north of Mobile. Four paper/lumber plants, two railroad 

 yards, and the State docks are also located in the Mobile area. A number of 

 seafood distributors are located in Bayou La Batre (Biloxi quadrangle). 

 Other information on water quality is included in the climatology and 

 hydrology narrative. 



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