EPA celebrates 40th anniversary by getting Virgin Islanders to talk Air quality

ST. CROIX - With more than 200 participants, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency celebrated its 40th anniversary by getting Virgin Islanders talking.

And as will happen sometimes when Virgin Islanders talk, things got heated.

Topics at the EPA's 40th anniversary conference Friday dealt mainly with two specific topics: how to best address the solid waste problem and how to ensure the territory preserves healthy air standards.

Underlying much of these issues was the potential for economic growth and job-creation.

"There's a particular urgency today," said V.I. Delegate to Congress Donna Christensen.

"The sobering fact is that the health of our economy, the health of our people, the health of our environment are all inextricably linked," Christensen said.

The question on the table was how to balance all three.

Everyone who spoke came back to the same theme: protecting the environment would have to come about as an organic, grass-roots movement - poignant wording in deference to the EPA, which was founded under just such circumstances.

"When we talk about environmental protection, it doesn't start at the top," said Gov. John deJongh Jr. "It starts as a grass-roots movement from people that desire change."

In the first discussion of the day, it was clear where the people stood.

Reduce, reuse vs. waste-to-energy

As the two presenters each approached the podium separately, it was clear by the audience reaction that they favored Paul Connett, the author of "Zero Waste for Sustainability" over those who represented Alpine Energy Group's waste-to-energy project.

While healthy and respectable applause was offered the Alpine representatives, Connett received a loud ovation.

"An incinerator needs to be fed for 20 to 30 years," said Connett. "So for 20 to 30 years, you stifle innovation."

Connett's position was that, through education and community buy-in, the territory can expect to divert a large percentage of waste from its landfills within 18 months.

The idea, which is similar to that being promoted by the EPA's V.I. Recycling Partnership initiative, is to reduce the amount of waste produced while increasing the amount that is reused through recycling and composting.

"You don't start with the most expensive, most problematic option," Connett said. "You start with what other communities in the world have done in getting a reduction."

EPA Region 2 Administrator Judith Enck was in agreement.

"The good news is that it's also the cheapest way to go," she said. "Recycling has created 1.1 million jobs in the United States. This is not something for do-gooders and hippies. This is economic development."

The EPA already has begun meetings with the V.I. Waste Management Authority and other local organizations, Enck said.

According to Connett, cities in Italy were able to divert almost 70 percent of their solid waste within 18 months of implementing the policy.

Alpine vice president Andy Hixson said the Alpine project is not at odds with recycling - in fact it encourages it.

"It's recycling and waste-to-energy, not either or," Hixson said. "It allows the path to closing the landfills. With waste-to-energy, the path is clear."

The project would use two waste-processing plants that would sort out non-combustibles and package them into "pellets" that can be stored and then burned in a waste-to-energy power plant that would be located on St. Croix, Hixson said.

"We can provide at least 30 percent of the power here on St. Croix from this facility and at least 15 percent on St. Thomas," he said, solving two major, long-standing problems: closing the landfills and reducing power bills and the emissions from burning fuel.

For those who expressed concern over what would be released into the air, Hixson continuously repeated that the project would never receive permitting if it posed a threat to public health.

The crowd, by and large, seemed to disagree.

Mark Lichtenstein, the director of the Environmental Finance Center at Syracuse University, has been heading the V.I. Recycling Partnership to promote the reduce-reuse theory. While there is a lot to be done, he said, he believes the territory's active and involved community will make the changes easier to implement.

First on the agenda is to find the "highest and best use" for every item in the waste stream, Lichtenstein said. At that point, small businesses can move in and take advantage of the recovered materials.

Everything from eliminating plastic bags at stores to reducing the amount of product packaging and offering money back to customers returning bottles can help, he said.

EPA presenters focused their attention on how they were addressing ongoing issues of harmful emissions into the air. While there are few air-monitoring stations in the territory, the real implementation will come with new requirements placed on HOVENSA and cruise ship companies, which have been required to install emissions-reduction technologies, Enck said.

As a result of the consent decree filed against HOVENSA by the EPA, the refinery will have to install $700 million in new technologies to significantly reduce emissions, Enck said.

As for the cruise ships, EPA is requiring ships that travel between Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands to install emissions controls on engines and to use cleaner fuels, Enck said.

"More cruise ships visit St. Thomas than any other place in the Caribbean," she said. "By protecting your land, your air, your water, you will ensure that tourists will come back."

In the case of the emergency releases from HOVENSA, the EPA acts as an oversight agency to ensure that the refinery takes the corrective action necessary, said EPA Region 2 Chief of Response and Remediation Ariel Iglesias.

"If the capacity of the local government is exceeded, then the federal government gets involved, and we go to the site and we work collaboratively with all the parties," he said.

- Contact Daniel Shea at 774-8772 ext. 457 or e-mail dshea@dailynews.vi.

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