But after back-to-back hurricanes pinwheeled across the Virgin Islands in September, Smith feels like he’s buried under piles of sheared metal roofs, waterlogged appliances and crumpled mango and bay rum trees that have been dropped off here.
“You used to actually be able to see over these banks,” said Smith, as he looked up at four-story debris piles lining the entrance to Bovoni landfill. “And the trucks just keep coming.”
Over the past 4 ½ months, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and local contractors have collected more than 736,000 cubic yards of debris — the equivalent of 61,000 truckloads — as they rush to clean up St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix, the territory’s three major islands.
As the mountains of wreckage continue to grow, crowding landfills and littering roadsides, debate has raged over how to get rid of the detritus tarnishing the islands’ famous Caribbean landscapes.
A plan to burn the waste was squashed after residents protested over the potential health and environmental effects. Shipping the waste to the U.S. mainland is complicated by the threat of invasive species.
Other Caribbean nations don’t want it either.
Meanwhile, Mapp fears the heaps of debris are not only an eyesore but also a major fire hazard on these islands with limited firefighting resources.
Mapp is demanding that the Army Corps remove all of the debris from the islands, threatening to extend the agency’s formal cleanup mission that is already projected to cost $275 million.
Another health hazard?
The Army Corps, tasked with overseeing removal of hurricane debris on the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, proposed an incineration process similar to one used by the federal government in New York and New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy in 2012. With jungles covering the islands’ mountainous terrain, about 80 percent of the debris left behind by Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria consists of uprooted trees, vines and other foliage, according to Army Corps statistics.
Mapp endorsed the Army Corps’ plan, arguing that incineration was the cheapest and most efficient way to get rid of the vegetation. But outcry against the proposal began on St. John, which is surrounded by coral reefs and includes a lush 20-square mile national park.
Within days, residents of St. Thomas and St. Croix joined in to express their opposition through community meetings, a petition drive, letter writing and social media campaigns.
To read the full story, visit https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/mountains-of-trash-left-behind-by-hurricanes-inflame-debate-in-us-virgin-islands/2018/02/22/30763f0e-1008-11e8-9065-e55346f6de81_story.html?utm_term=.3dfcf33251a7.