The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency saluted several Virgin Islanders and organizations Friday for their environmental work in the territory.
At the Nature Conservancy’s Little Princesse Estate on St. Croix, EPA Region 2 administrator Jeanne Fox presented awards to Coral World Marine Park for its environmental conservation and education efforts on St. Thomas, and to Olasee Davis, Errol Chichester and Sherry Teitelman for their environmental work on St. Croix.
Coral World, represented by part-owner Henry Wheatley, was recognized for, among other things, its extensive energy conservation program that has cut the facility’s energy use in half. An on-site water filtration system for the attraction’s tanks is also reducing silt runoff into Coki Bay.
"It was extremely important to us to protect the environment," Wheatley said. "When were taking care of it, we were taking care of our business."
Chichester and Teitelman, who has since moved from St. Croix, were recipients of the EPA’s 1999 Environmental Quality Award for their efforts to educate island residents about recycling and composting in order to reduce the amount of waste going into the Anguilla Landfill.
Davis, an ecologist and environmental activist, won the EPA’s 2000 prize on St. Croix for his research on environmental issues and educational outreach efforts.
The awards are presented each year to local individuals and entities that have made significant contributions to improve the quality of the environment. Winners are chosen by a panel of EPA employees who review nominations submitted from inside and outside the agency. The territorial EPA office nominated Coral World for an award.
Davis said he was accepting his plaque not for himself, but for all island residents. "This is for the people of the Virgin Islands and all the people who are not born yet," he said.
Meanwhile, the EPA awarded the Nature Conservancy a grant of nearly $300,000 for a model sustainable development project for small island and coral reef conservation. The prototype facility at the Little Princesse Estate will demonstrate pollution prevention technologies for sustainable island living, focusing on nonpoint and source pollution from septic fields, agricultural and industrial activities, and unsustainable natural resource use.
