Jan. 15, 2008 - Very preliminary sedimentation research by University of San Diego professor Sarah Gray and her team already shows some interesting results for several St. John bays.
"There is three times and up to 73 times higher sedimentation in developed bays," Gray told the 20 people gathered at Concordia Eco-camps pavilion for a forum sponsored by the Coral Bay Community Council.
However, she said that she couldn't say for sure that the higher sedimentation rates were related to development, so she'll continue her research.
The Community Council has a big interest in Gray's research because protection of the Coral Bay watershed is one of the group's priorities.
"The work Sarah is doing is very critical for policy recommendations," Community Council President Sharon Coldren said.
The Community Council last year received a $300,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to address storm-water issues in Coral Bay. Some of that money will go to hire a stormwater engineer.
"The stormwater engineer will look very closely at Dr. Gray's studies," Coldren said.
Coldren hopes that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is funding Gray's research, will provide funding to help mitigate the problems caused by storm-water runoff in Coral Bay. The sedimentation from the storm-water runoff smothers and subsequently kills coral reefs.
Gray began research on Fish Bay and Great Lameshur Bay in 2007 to compare sedimentation in a bay with adjacent development and a bay with no development on the hillsides above. Fish Bay is home to an increasing number of homes while Great Lameshur has no development except for the V.I. Environmental Research Station.
In 2008, Gray and her team added three locations in Coral Bay to the mix. They are the area near Shipwreck Landing Restaurant, an area near the mangroves in Coral Bay town and Calabash Boom. All have development on the shoreline and hillsides above.
Calabash Boom is also home to the under-construction Calabash Boom affordable housing project.
"It looks like the sedimentation strategies may be helping," Gray said, pointing to graph that showed the Calabash Boom area had less sedimentation than Shipwreck Landing.
Gray said the developer, Reliance Housing Foundation, installed several measures, including a sediment pond, to mitigate the damage caused by dirt running downhill into the bay from the construction site.
And Gray said that the sedimentation near the shore in Coral Bay is higher than the reefs in other bays.
The study also showed that the sedimentation was higher in all locations during heavy rains.

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