Conditions in the USVI warrant EPA withdrawing approvals and taking over management of some environmental progams and improving oversight of others

Thank you for posting the link. DPNR is in big trouble and that's not including the poison case.

Think the Feds should consider getting involved in more than a few other things.

The VI loses out on millions of fed dollars, because they can't submit adequate documentation on grant applications. I heard somebody say Guam gets a greater % of fed funds than VI because they can submit more accurate applications with documentation.

The beach notification issue could be a disaster. The VI will lose millions if they start closing beaches due to contamination. Very few people, and probably no visitors, pay attention to the weekly advisories so they go in the water not knowing.

This is a mixed blessing... good that the FEDS are taking serious the lack of interest on the part of the local government, but a little unsettling that there are issues that have been neglected to lead to this.

Agreed. The EPA report is very disturbing

I read the whole EPA article,....now I have a headache. I have just one pertinant question,..........DPNR??? What DPNR? It seems like the USVI does not and never has had a DPNR. I hope the EPA comes in and takes over EVERYTHING!

Unfortunately, if you read any of the numerous audits by our VIOIG, that has been done over the course of the years, you will find that this type of appalling performance is indicative of every single USVI government department, including that of our VI Legislature.

The waste, misspending, mismanagement, misappropriation, misuse, abuse, fraud and outright theft, in many cases, will continue as long as we continue to allow nepotism and cronyism to dictate who gets hired to lead these various government and quasi-government agencies, instead of who is actually the most qualified to do so.
When we stop hiring people just because they're related to so and so or because a favor is owed, maybe something will change.

There is no oversight to how these agencies perform or not, in most cases and most telling is the lack of accountability and punishment when discovered.

Aren't we still waiting to hear what happened to the $13.1 MILLION DOLLARS that our VI Legislature was responsible for misspending, etc.

When we insist on a Code of Ethics be instituted and adhered to in the USVI, maybe things will change for the better but don't hold your breathe.

As to the beach advisories, what good do they actually do when they are published the following week and people have already been in the water and exposed to whatever has been in the water to allow it to fail the water quality tests?

The EPA report is extremely disturbing but hardly surprising.

The waste, misspending, mismanagement, misappropriation, misuse, abuse, fraud and outright theft, in many cases, will continue as long as we continue to allow nepotism and cronyism to dictate who gets hired to lead these various government and quasi-government agencies, instead of who is actually the most qualified to do so.
When we stop hiring people just because they're related to so and so or because a favor is owed, maybe something will change.

How about stop electing officials based on how much fish and johnnycakes they give away rather than their qualifications to be an elected official ? Oh yes I forgot, our voting machines and ballots are more flawed than Florida's during the Bush/Gore election. If the feds were to step in and run all of the broken/ineffectual agencies here then it would be the federal govt of the virgin islands not the vi government. The only thing many times is consistant with the local government is that given a choice on a decision, they make the one that is never the correct one......

That, too!
Not to mention an apathetic population.

Please don't make this a lazy local discussion. The situation is as complex as it is frustrating.

Excuse me but where is the outraged citizenry when these things come to light? Where is the demand for change? "Business as usual" is running the islands into the ground and shall continue to do so.

"A society of sheep will in time beget a government of wolves."

Excuse me but where is the outraged citizenry when these things come to light? Where is the demand for change? "Business as usual" is running the islands into the ground and shall continue to do so.

"A society of sheep will in time beget a government of wolves."

I don't even live there,......"yet"........and I'm outraged! Where in the definition of paradise does it mention a fettted cesspool of putrid drinking water and gross fiscal irresponsibility?!!? Oh wait,....I think I read that in the Revised Organic Act that created the USVI somewhere,.......

Um, Senator Marvin Blyden has asked some of the very questions of agencies whose actions DPNR is supposed to be monitoring and were addressed in the EPA report.

There are people who are outraged, but not enough of them yet. I think there's a meeting next month where public can ask questions.

I don't know how the public can get enraged if they don't have the info. The EPA story was covered in today's Daiky News but not in Avis. Whoever received notification via email or Facebook needs to get organized and ask tough questions.

The paper should do an expose on all the crimes committed by DPNR. Somebody had to remind me of them, so I'm sure others have forgotten.

And then do another agency and another...

Just take a look at the various audits on our VI Office of the Inspector General's website.

Only a tiny few of us are going to check that site. If you want people to react, you have to reveal where they read or listen, and you have to connect the dots for them. And you have to do it over and over until they start listening. That's what effective advertising does, and that's how you have to treat voters - like consumers looking for solutions and choices.