Paradise Found RV Resort faces nearly $24,000 fine from ADEM

THEODORE, Ala. ( WKRG ) — The Paradise Found RV Resort on Dauphin Island Parkway is now facing a $23,850 fine from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management.

The fine is due to a series of violations on how the construction site has handled its stormwater runoff pollution into Fowl River.

Construction began three years ago, but since the beginning of construction, residents like Richard Becker have not been on board with the idea. Once construction began and he saw the impacts on the canal in his backyard, it worried him even more.

News 5 spoke with Becker one year ago who described the water to look like “Chocolate Milk” whenever it rained. He said the same thing about the water today.

“It’s still a mess,” Becker said.

The murkier-than-normal water is not just an aesthetic issue as it is impacting what lives in that water.

“It can create a lot of turbidity issues in the water. So that can block out sunlight and can cause die-offs for things like seagrass or other vegetation that’s submerged in the water,” Mobile Bay Keeper staff scientist Cassie Bates said.

Jackie Wilson has seen those impacts firsthand. She owns Bama Bay Oyster farm and said that the turbid water has impacted her oysters.

“I not only watch this death loom of turbid water coming from that canal where the park is heading towards my farm to suffocate them but then I spend the next two-to-three weeks washing and having to clean muck and mud off of the oysters,” Wilson said.

She said that her equipment has even been impacted due to the construction. The RV site allegedly dumped trees into the water, and she found six trees tangled in her equipment.

“Essentially I lost about $5,000 of gear and product, so that’s when I was like, ‘Hmm something is not right here,'” Wilson said.

Residents and Mobile Bay Keeper told News 5 that a series of complaints have been filed to ADEM regarding the RV Resort.

News 5 reached out to Paradise Found RV Resort multiple times for a comment, but they told us they would get back to us.

ADEM is accepting comments on this action until July 26.

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