More federal stimulus money is on the way to the island. The Coral Bay Community Council will receive $1.47 million and the Fish Bay Homeowners Association will get $474,000 to be used to combat pollution of the bays and coral reefs caused by runoff from the hills.
The St. John Source said Coral Bay’s Community Council will use the money to repair roadways and storm drains while Fish Bay will see installation of culverts, swales and a retaining wall.
Let’s see if I understand correctly…the Fish Bay Homeowners get nearly $500k to combat the runoff caused by the fact that they paid probably about that much to pave over all the roads?
The water needs some place to go. If it doesn’t go in the ground, because the ground has been paved, it will go into the bay.
Why should we reward people who don’t get this simple fact by giving them money to correct the error of their ways?
The money came from a science grant that is working for the watershed and for the bay.
It does more damage to the reefs below to have unpaved roads then paved roads, because unpaved roads increase sedimentation to the reefs. There isn’t much of a soil profile for the rain to soak into anyway, so the majority of the water runs off the top layer of the soil into the bay during a rain event.
The money is funding work that aims to improve the watersheds and reefs, regardless of how people have treated the land in the past. No matter what, it’s being done for improvement.
Pete’s concern regarding paved roads is partly valid in that they generate more runoff. The reality is that other options, such as porous pavement, are unrealistic at this time (too expensive and no local distributor). Paved roads do produce less sediment though, so the runoff is ‘cleaner’ in terms of sediment content. Roads destined to be paved were prioritized according to scientific tools and not to the will of a HO Association.