As residents of the Virgin Islands, we know we're blessed with an incredibly beautiful and complex environment.
We enjoy pristine ocean waters and beaches, ancient reefs, a dazzling array of fish and other aquatic creatures, mangrove forests, gracefully old trees and much, much more.
That's why we get visitors and transplants to our islands. In the last 20 years, the number of tourists and new residents has grown, moving the territory further away from its sleepy past.
But more people and more asphalt mean more impact on our environment.
Unfortunately, as we've grown over the past two decades, our environmental awareness and protection really haven't kept pace.
Yes, we are blessed with small bands of environmentally conscious partisans out there fighting the battles. But as a community, we've been lagging.
Over the last few decades, many states much larger than the U.S. Virgin Islands have legislated comprehensive environmental-quality laws to ensure natural resources. The federal government has also enacted laws to protect the nation's air and water.
But here on the fringes of the United States the battle to educate residents about such things as recycling, the need for conservation and the importance of enforcing environmental laws is just starting.
The territory is still operating without an up-to-date land and water use plan. The Department of Planning and Natural Resources is underfunded, making enforcement and inspection more difficult. All of which makes it more difficult for local agencies to deal with all our pressing concerns or with developers and companies with deep pockets.
In addition, DPNR lacks any punitive power when it comes to brethren governmental agencies that abuse the environment. Examples are our malfunctioning wastewater systems and the Anguilla and Bovoni landfills, all
operated by the Public Works Department.
In the meantime, we have federal entities such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Attorney's Office beginning to take more notice of our environment — particularly our problems, which are many.
So what do we do? Well, we have agencies like the Anti-litter and Beautification Commission which is pushing hard to educate us on the basics of recycling. But for that to continue, so must funding.
We have the St. Croix Environmental Association and the Environmental
Association of St. Thomas-St. John questioning suspect development and educating young people — the ones who will inherit these islands in the very near future.
And then we have us, the all-too-often unthinking adults of the Virgin Islands who are blessed with an incredibly beautiful and complex environment — but who trash it nonetheless.
That is the first place for us to step up our efforts at environmental conservation: by educating and inspiring people to change the way they view and treat this fragile resource.
