US Virgin Islands Hotel & Tourism Association
The USVI community is invited to participate in a series of Virtual Town Hall meetings that are being held territory-wide. The Town Hall meetings will provide individuals and businesses with an opportunity to weigh in on the discussion regarding the impacts of stormwater runoff and flooding in our communities. The USVI Department of Planning and Natural Resources (DPNR) has obtained funding through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) to assess eight (8) high priority watersheds of concern. On St. Thomas, the specific watersheds that we will be looking at include the Bolongo, Charlotte Amalie and the Airport watersheds. On St. Croix, these include the Salt River Bay, Hovensa, Bethlehem, Diamond and Long Point Bay watersheds. The watersheds of focus encompass areas with critical infrastructure including the airport and major roadways; commercial, government and residential investments; and agricultural activity.
The insight and recommendations obtained from these discussions will be used to identify watershed-specific issues, identify attainable solutions to reduce water quality degradation, improve flood resiliency, and develop comprehensive Watershed Management Plans. The Watershed Management Plans will be used to inform local agencies and institutions regarding site-specific options for flood reduction and water quality improvement.
The watersheds were selected as high priority based on their importance to Virgin Islanders as places where structural and natural assets have been affected by changes to land cover and associated flooding risks. DPNR has engaged the services of Watershed Consulting Associates, LLC in the assessment and creation of the Watershed Management Plans.
The meetings are open to the public and will be held electronically via Zoom. To request access to this electronic meeting, please register at the links below prior to the meeting and connection information will be provided to you by email. If you would like to watch the proceedings, but not participate, you can connect to the project’s Facebook here. The livestream of the meetings will begin a few minutes prior to scheduled times.