The summary below provides a description of a St. John, US Virgin Islands project that received a cooperative agreement from EPA’s former Community Action for a Renewed Environment (CARE) Program in 2008. These case studies serve as historic references, and conditions since the project was funded may have changed.

The resources developed for this project provide communities with information about ways that other communities have addressed environmental issues. Communities can use these project results to reduce environmental impacts, understand risks and become stewards of their own environment.

Summary

Coral Bay Watershed Management 
St. John, Virgin Islands
EPA Region 2

The Coral Bay Watershed Management is a recipient of the Level II CARE Cooperative Agreement. The Coral Bay Community Council, Inc. (CBCC), the lead organization for this project, is actively involved in community planning and serves as an environmental watch dog. Coral Bay is a remote, rural community of 1,500 people, with about 50 small retail and service businesses in a 3,000 acre watershed, known as the Coral Bay Watershed. The largest environmental issue recognized by the community is the need to address the multiple negative impacts, and associated cumulative risks, from uncontrolled storm water runoff into Coral Bay. The CBCC will use the Level II CARE Cooperative Agreement to continue and expand its collective efforts to stop erosion, sediment, and storm-water pollution of Coral Bay, improve solid waste management, and heighten awareness about other toxic pollution issues, by implementing the recently completed Coral Bay Watershed Management Plan.

Established CARE Partners: U.S. Virgin Islands - Department of Planning and Natural Resources, U. S. Virgin Islands Office of the Governor, Virgin Islands Resource Conservation and Development Council, Inc., Donna M. Christensen - U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Island Green Building Association, Virgin Islands Waste Management Authority, Maho Bay Camps, Harmony Studios - Estate Concordia Preserve, Department of Planning and Natural Resources - Coastal Zone Management Program, National Park Service - US Virgin Islands National Park, and the Department of Planning and Natural Resources - Division of Planning.