Oil spills a serious threat to VI

Kudos to government for taking legal action over a major oil spill at Pockwood Pond.

In March, the attorney general sued the BVI Electricity Corporation for $190,000, citing damages that the Department of Disaster Management claims resulted from the incident.

We hope the lawsuit will set a precedent in the Virgin Islands, where oil spills happen too frequently. Often the perpetrators are never identified — let alone required to take responsibility for their actions. Taxpayers, then, are left with an expensive cleanup bill.

In the Pockwood Pond case, of course, the public will still take a hit — BVIEC customers probably will have to indirectly foot the bill if government wins — but the lawsuit nonetheless sends an important message to would-be polluters.

Besides, if government doesn’t hold its own agencies accountable, its attempts to regulate the private sector will appear hypocritical.

In the future, we hope that such enforcement efforts will continue, and that leaders will show the political will to push for tougher rules.

In that vein, we are pleased to note that the Petroleum Regulations were updated in 2012, in part to help authorities hold violators accountable.

To further the same end, the government also has promised to introduce an Oil Discharge Prevention Compensation and Liability Bill this year.

We hope that this step will come soon, and that all such laws will be followed — not selectively enforced or ignored like so much other well-meaning environmental legislation here.

Such reforms are of great importance, because spilled oil is a major threat to the VI. To say nothing of the health hazards for humans, oil can wreak havoc on entire ecosystems, killing coral, mangroves, fish, birds and other wildlife.

These risks alone should be enough to motivate leaders to take extensive protective measures. And such steps are even more critical in a territory whose tourism-based economy is entirely dependent on a pristine environment.

Oil spills must not be tolerated in these islands.

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