“As the environment goes, so goes the Virgin Islands,” independent at-large candidate Bertrand “Washasha X” Lettsome said last Thursday night at a Road Town debate and rally focusing on sustainable development. The debate, organised by the Virgin Islands Environmental Council, brought a handful of candidates to the Noel Lloyd Positive Action Movement Park to discuss an issue that played a key role in the 2007 elections: development at Beef Island and beyond.
The VIEC is perhaps best known for its opposition to Quorum Island BVI Ltd.’s proposal to build a 659-acre luxury resort and golf course on Beef Island.
The proposal has been in the works since 1995, when the company completed a deal to purchase the Beef Island land under the Virgin Islands Party-led government of Chief Minister H. Lavity Stoutt. But it wasn’t until 2005 that a preliminary development agreement was signed by then-Chief Minister Dr. Orlando Smith’s National Democratic Party-led government.
The 2005 agreement sparked heated controversy, which soon turned political and came to a head during the 2007 election campaigns.
The NDP maintained that the Beef Island resort and other developments planned under its watch would bring tax dollars, create high-paying jobs for Virgin Islanders, and attract high-end tourists — all while keeping environmental impact to a minimum. The VIP sided in large part with opponents, who argued that the projects would come at too high a cost to the environment, and would endanger critical ecosystems.
Ultimately, leaders from both the NDP and the VIP agreed that developments, or the public’s perception of them, played a key role in the VIP’s landslide victory in 2007.
Shortly after the elections, the VIEC sued for judicial review of Dr. Smith’s 2007 final approval of the Beef Island proposal, arguing the project would adversely affect Hans Creek, a fisheries protected area along the island’s coast.
High Court Justice Indra Hariprashad-Charles initially ruled for the VIEC, saying Dr. Smith’s approval was illegal in light of the territory’s fisheries protection laws. But in August, the Court of Appeal overturned her decision on a technicality, saying Hans Creek had not been properly designated a fisheries protected area and re-opening the door for the Beef Island project. The council will likely appeal the case to the Privy Council, said VIEC co-director Quincy Lettsome.
The group would like to see Hans Creek become a “heritage site,” with hotel accommodations, food and beverages and “wardens or rangers to take people around to the various trails,” Mr. Lettsome said last Thursday.
“I think we should try to preserve this area and enhance it as much as possible,” he added.
This year’s campaigns
At last Thursday’s debate, candidates commended the VIEC’s work and called for more effective environmental regulations. They also lamented that the environment hasn’t gotten more discussion in this year’s campaigns.
“The environment is of great importance, and somehow, some way, even along the campaign trail, the environment has not been paid the attention that it is really due, that really matches the significance it has in our lives,” said Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley, an at-large candidate for the People’s Patriotic Alliance, who said he is also a VIEC member.
Samuel O’Neal, an independent candidate for the Ninth District seat now held by Premier Ralph O’Neal, expressed similar views.
“In the heat of our election, I am not hearing this subject being brought up for debate,” he said.
Addressing the Beef Island project, Deputy Premier Dancia Penn, the VIP’s Eighth District candidate, spoke of the need to balance Quorum Island’s property rights with environmental concerns. But, she said, she considers development of Hans Creek a “no-no.”
“I believe that an ecotourism-type development is the kind of development that would be best suited for the area, but I want to affirm that I think developing Hans Creek is absolutely not on,” Ms. Penn said.
Bertrand Lettsome, who was the territory’s chief conservation and fisheries officer until he retired in September, said Hans Creek is similar to The Baths on Virgin Gorda, with granite boulders, freshwater grottoes and a rich supply of fish. And a salt pond in the area, which he said development proposals envisioned dredging, serves as the “kidneys and the filter for all the stuff coming out of Mt. Alma and heading out to the sea.”
Hans Creek is also an important breeding ground for a variety of fish species, for reasons scientists have yet to fully understand, Edmund Maduro, an independent at-large candidate, said last Thursday.
“Hans Creek must never be compromised to meet the desires of the development,” he said. “The development must take all the compromise to meet Hans Creek.”
No NDP candidate spoke at the debate, which Dr. Smith said conflicted with a prescheduled party rally.
On Tuesday, Dr. Smith declined to take a position on the Quorum Island project.
“I do not know what the status of the investors are, or what’s really happening right now, so I don’t have a position,” he said. “I won’t be able to make any statement on that – it’s all in the hands of the present government so far, and also all in the hands of the investors.”
But he reiterated the NDP’s overall commitment to the environment.
“Of course, we’re all about protecting the environment,” he said. “If we don’t protect the environment, it’s not good for us, and we don’t prosper.”
Other issues
Candidates also called attention to other environmental issues around the VI.
Collin Scatliffe, an independent candidate for the Fourth District seat now held by Dr. Vincent Scatliffe, spoke of boats that he said dump sewage, oil and other pollutants in the territory’s harbours and marinas.
“I would be in favour of making sure that anything that has to do with protecting our natural environment is supported wholeheartedly,” he said, calling for anyone who pollutes the territory — be they Virgin Islanders or not — to be punished.
Independent candidate Preston Stoutt, who is running for the First District seat now held by Education and Culture Minister Andrew Fahie, did not participate in the debate, but he had previously issued an “environmental revitalisation and energy renewal plan.”
In his plan, he wrote, “Laws need to be implemented to ensure that there are increased repercussions” for destroying natural resources.
During the debate, Mr. Wheatley said he would support post-development environmental assessments, to determine whether developers have followed the recommendations of pre-construction environmental impact assessments.
“We need a group to monitor these things,” he said, also calling for additional power for the Conservation and Fisheries Department.
“We have to have principles, and we cannot allow our environmental principles to be disregarded,” he said.
Some candidates also complained that the premier has the power to overrule decisions of the territory’s chief planner and that government ministers often overrule decisions made by experienced civil servants.
“We need for politicians to stop interfering with technical people when they’re doing their work,” Bertrand Lettsome said.
He added, “I spent 27 years in the civil service, and they just fire; they just want to kill you for doing your job. But a politician can get up and do anything, say anything, and nothing happens.”
Environmental bonds
Under the Physical Planning Act, developers can be required to put up an environmental performance bond — a deposit held until any violations of environmental agreements with government are repaired — but Mr. Lettsome said he was unable to get government to require any such bonds, he said.
Samuel O’Neal, who owns a construction company, spoke similarly.
“The people we are putting in place, like the Planning Board, the Conservation and Fisheries, we ought to let them do their work rather than having ministerial overrides and what have you,” he said. “I am totally against this situation, where you have politicians jumping in and taking things from ministries and departments just to have an agreement and that sort of thing.”
In a statement posted on the NDP website, at-large candidate Archibald Christian expressed similar concerns. “We must continue to protect the environment from illegal, destructive and harmful development and [develop] more parks and green spaces for leisure and recreation,” Mr. Christian said.
In an interview earlier this month, Khoy Smith, a PPA at-large candidate, advocated for protecting agriculture and fishing areas to encourage local food production.
“We’ll have zoning,” he said, and declared, “These lands are primarily for farming — they’re not to be tampered with.”
The PPA candidate also suggested creating reservoirs and damming ghuts to capture rainwater, ultimately saving on desalination-related energy costs. Watersheds and freshwater springs should then be protected from harmful development, he said.
Alternative energy
Although the subject wasn’t broached last Thursday, candidates have also weighed in on energy policy during the campaign.
Under current law, the BVI Electricity Corporation is granted a monopoly on electricity generation, with alternative energy technology like rooftop solar arrays allowed only for backup power or in areas not served by the BVIEC grid. The nonprofit group Green VI has been circulating a petition calling for a change to the law and is working with Harneys to draft alternative legislation.
Myron Walwyn, an NDP at-large candidate, said in an Oct. 6 statement that his party would immediately “explore the use of alternative energy sources” if elected to government.
“We will also immediately amend the requisite legislation to allow people to bring in solar panels to be used on their roofs to generate their own energy,” he said.
An NDP government would also consider other alternative energy options, he added, citing the recent solar-power installation at Cyril E. King Airport on St. Thomas and proposals for geothermal power in St. Kitts and Nevis. An ongoing study involving US and VI agencies is exploring the possibility of connecting the electrical grids of Puerto Rico, the USVI and this territory and potentially one day connecting a multi-territory grid to a geothermal plant in Nevis.
VIP at-large candidate Zoe Walcott-McMillan made similar pledges in a statement issued at the time of her campaign launch.
“Team VIP and I will encourage the Electricity Corporation to review the policy and legislation which will allow for the introduction of green power through the use of renewable energy sources such as wind power, hydropower, solar power and others where applicable,” she said, citing the high cost of electricity in the VI.
2007 manifestos
Four years ago, the VIP made similar pledges, saying in its 2007 election manifesto that the party intended to “provide incentives and support to the use of alternative energy such as solar and wind sources to reduce the demand for non-renewable energy.” However, no such policy has been announced since the current government took office. Nor has the government publicised any substantive progress toward its 2007 manifesto promise to allocate “resources to address the removal of barriers to the use of renewable energy.”
The NDP made similar pledges in its 2007 manifesto.
Khoy Smith suggested that alternative energy be developed by government and the BVIEC, rather than individual property owners, in order to make sure the utility remains revenue-positive.
“We don’t want that revenue to just go out,” he said, adding that savings from alternative energy could ultimately be passed on to consumers.
“They’re concerned about having to pay a lower cost,” not with who generates the power, he said. Mr. Smith suggested exploring solar power options on Anegada and ocean-current generation in the Sir Francis Drake Channel, or using the energy produced by burning waste at the Pockwood Pond incinerator.
“It’s already energy,” he said. “What we need to do is trap the energy and make use of it.”