June 2, 2002 – With the hope of helping builders do better by the environment, the University of the Virgin Islands Cooperative Extension Service has come out with a second revised edition of the "Virgin Islands Environmental Protection Handbook." This hefty tome runs only $15, a bargain price considering that it's chock full of handy tips. It's a must read for anyone in the construction business or those who plan to build a home themselves.
"We are emphasizing the importance of planning," said Julie Wright, Cooperative Extension Service program supervisor.
Wright unveiled the handbook at the recent Non-Point Source Pollution Conference on St. John.
Improper installation of silt fences is one of Wright's pet peeves. Indeed, the handbook's Chapter 3 on "Erosion and Sediment Control Practices," which covers silt fences, might be the most important one in the entire book. "Nobody puts a silt fence in right," she said.
A silt fence is a temporary device used to keep bare soil from running down the hillside into the ocean when it rains. It's particularly important during construction because big chunks of the natural vegetation that normally would help to keep the soil in place are removed to make way for the building, leaving the bare soil exposed to rain and wind.
The silt fence is made of a filter fabric stretched across wood posts, metal reinforcing bars called rebar or a wire support fence. The lower edge of the material is firmly held down to the ground, creating a trench for the sediment higher up on the slope to collect. If the fence is not held down to the ground and the trench area is not left, the sediment can flow right under the fence.
Silt fences are appropriate only for residential construction projects. For a commercial construction project — building a shopping center, for example, you need to take bigger measures. Wright would like to see builders use erosion control mats to keep the soil from washing downhill. "It prevents the soil from eroding in the first place," she said. The mats are made of materials such as straw or coconut fibers and they are laid out to cover the ground rather than just catch the sediment as silt fences do. She also favors keeping natural vegetation in place to slow runoff and filter out sediment.
Beyond its "how to" aspects, the handbook is useful for learning the nuts and bolts of how erosion happens and what materials are pollutants. It addresses problems caused by the increasing number of roads on the territory's small islands. While paved roads help prevent erosion, they also decreases water seepage into the ground, which causes other problems. The book also includes information on watershed, site and development planning, ways to deal with construction wastes, how to build so you can better deal with storm water runoff, and myriad tables and charts for calculating erosion potential.
The "Virgin Islands Environmental Protection Handbook" first came out in 1976, with a first revision in 1995. This new revision incorporates lessons learned from pollution demonstration and research projects conducted in the territory over the past seven years, as well as innovations developed in the United States.
Wright said the book can be mailed to those who are unable to go by the offices where it's available on the UVI campuses. For more information, call her at the Cooperative Extension Service office on St. Thomas at 693-1082, or Faye Williams of the V.I. Resource Conservation Development Council on St. Croix at 692-9632, ext. 101.
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