The natural resources of St. Croix are unique. The beauty and health of the St. Croix environment is vital to the health and well being of all Virgin Islanders. Many residents enjoy the islands’ beaches and coastal waters for swimming, bathing, snorkeling, diving, sailing, and fishing. The St. Croix fishing industry depends upon healthy coastal waters and reefs for its livelihood. Many residents also use native plants for cultural or medicinal purposes.

However, these uses and environmental health, in general, are often considered to be secondary to the development process. Ugly raw excavation scars remain long after land development has been completed. Coastal water quality has been steadily deteriorating due to the influx of sediment, sewage and other pollutants. The health of the coral reefs is correspondingly declining. Many native plants and animals have become rare, threatened or endangered. This degradation is a long-term threat to the St. Croix economy, especially since that economy is dependent upon its environmental health and beauty to attract tourism and business.

Increasing amounts of forest and grass lands in St. Croix are being converted to housing, roads, and commercial and industrial land uses each year. These construction activities take place on many different kinds of topography and soils, each having different properties and limitations. Such activities and land uses alter natural water flow paths and seepage of water into the soil (change hydrology) and increase erosion and sedimentation, damaging the environment. Ecosystem degradation also results from poor land clearing and landscaping practices that negatively impact plants, wildlife, soil, and water resources. Large-scale removal of vegetation reduces wildlife habitat, promotes soil erosion and sedimentation, and threatens biological diversity. Construction along ridge lines and in guts (intermittent streams) is rapidly depleting moist forest habitat and changing microclimates in the territory.

Increased runoff causes severe erosion and more frequent flooding and has created serious problems in many areas of St. Croix. Eroding road beds and cut slopes (e.g. behind houses or next to roads) cause costly property damage. Sediment and other pollutants run off uphill construction sites, roads, parking lots and other land areas and are deposited along roadways, in guts, on lower-lying property, and in ponds and coastal waters, polluting surface and ground water.

Decreased water seepage into the ground (infiltration) also reduces the island's critical fresh water supply. As paved areas increase, the amount of rainfall that seeps into the soil and into ground water is decreased. This reduces the water available for plant growth and as ground water for public consumption. In order to provide fresh water to the growing population of St. Croix, and to ensure healthy terrestrial ecosystems, it is critical to retain as much rainwater as possible within the ground, in guts and in other surface water bodies.

The majority of homes on St. Croix have septic tank/seepage pit sewage disposal systems. Due to the island ’s shallow and/ or clayey soils, steep slopes, and very limited enforceable regulations on the construction and maintenance of these septic systems, effluent from these systems has great potential to impair ground water, cistern water, and coastal water quality, and to have an adverse impact on human health. Millions of gallons of inadequately treated sewage are pumped into the ocean and coastal waters daily by way of sewer pipe malfunctions and failing septic systems, posing human and environmental health threats. There has been a marked decline in the local fishery, due both to pollution and over-fishing. The destruction of coral reefs and associated marine life near sewage outfall sites has also been documented.

Solid waste is disposed of in an unlined landfill that lacks leachate collection systems. Improper disposal of toxic, hazardous, and infectious material into this unsanitary landfill allows leachates to contaminate ground water supplies and coastal waters and fisheries. In addition, periodic fires erupt at St. Croix's Anguilla landfill, and there is widespread concern regarding how ash from these fires may impact the cistern collection systems of residents in the area.

Other pollution in St. Croix may be caused by toxic chemicals emitted by businesses and industries into St. Croix's air, soil and water. the U.S. EPA's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) tracks the chemicals released by industrial facilities and provides information on toxic chemicals treated on-site, recycled, and burned for energy recovery. TRI provides vital information about chemicals released into U.S. communities, and is an important instrument for industries to gauge their progress in reducing pollution.

The 2006 Toxics Release Inventory Report indicates that industry releases of toxic chemicals into the U.S. Virgin Islands’ air and water have fallen by over 25% between 1998 and 2004. Lead releases into the Virgin Islands’ environ-ment have declined by over 25% from 2003 to 2004, and the amount of total releases, including land disposal, dropped by 5.4% in the same period. TRI data and information are available online. Access the 2004 TRI Data Files at www.epa.gov/tri/tridata/tri04/data/index.htm, click on State Data Files and then click on the Virgin Islands on the map provided to download data for the territory. You can also quickly and easily identify local facilities and chemical releases in St. Croix by using the TRI explorer mapping tool, available at www.epa.gov/triexplorer.

Many agencies and organizations are working to prevent or minimize pollution in St. Croix. There are many things you and your neighbors can do to keep your watershed healthy & productive. To learn what you can do to take care of yor property and your watershed, contact one of the following agencies or organizations:

• V.I. Department of Planning & Natural Resources Division of Environmental Protection
• V.I. Department of Planning & Natural Resources Division of Coastal Zone Management
• V.I. Waste Management Authority
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• UVI Cooperative Extension Service
• Virgin Islands Resource Conservation & Development Council, Inc.
• St. Croix Environmental Association
• The Nature Conservancy
• USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service