Letter from the Island Green Living Association (IGLA)

igla-logoJuly 15, 2015

Mr. Jose. A. Cedeno-Maldonado
Army Corps of Engineers
Antilles Permit Section
400 Fernandez Juncos Avenue
San Juan, Puerto Rico 00901-3299

Position Statement: Island Green Living Association
Summers End Mega Yacht Marina Proposal for Coral Bay, St. John, USVI
Application SAJ-2004-12518 (SP-JCM) – Coral Bay Marina

The Island Green Living Association of St. John and its membership are Territorial leaders in sustainable and low impact island living with a mission to educate all residents and visitors to St. John and the Virgin Islands. The Board of Directors and Membership, after due consideration and review of the plans for the Summers End Marina project are unanimously opposed to the permitting and development of this inappropriately large and potentially catastrophic plan.

Environmental Concerns

  1. Negative impact on habitat for endangered species, including Green Sea Turtles, Hawksbill Turtles, and Leatherback Turtles.
  2. Negative impact on endangered coral species found in Coral Bay.
  3. Negative impact on the healthy mangroves in close proximity to the project site.
  4. Negative impact on fish nurseries – Lemon shark, Black Tip shark, conch, whelk and numerous juvenile reef fish who use the mangroves and sea grass meadows
  5. Negative impact on the marine meadows that provide filtration and trap sediments.

Construction Impacts

  1. Noise, reverberating in the Coral Bay amphitheater, from pile driving on 1333 pilings. How long, what intensity, what impacts to people, animals, migratory whales, pelagic dolphins?
  2. Siltation – the barge spuds and pile driving will release vast clouds of silt, how will this be contained to not result in killing acres of sea grass? A rainfall deposits silt, but it dissipates in a couple days. The construction will create years of silt and may present risks to the sea bottom vegetation.
  3. Construction water, electricity – how will the utility needs of the construction be met? Will there be constant diesel engines, pile drivers, generators creating daytime noise?


Location of the Marina

  1. The proposed location is on the windward shore of Coral Bay harbor. It is subject to extreme wind and wave action during any tropical storm.
  1. The proposed location is subject to waves whenever there is a SE wind. The majority of the slips are situated broadside to the waves.
  1. Both the Water and Land Based portions of the marina pose significant safety issues for people and property.
  1. Water Based safety issues to human life and property occur as a result of the proposed marina being directly exposed to open ocean swells.
  1. Land based safety issues occur as a result of the project (land and water based portions) being isolated from each other by a public roadway, (a federally listed highway) and one of only two routes to the south shore of St. John. All pedestrian traffic from parking areas and the land based portion of the marina must cross a public roadway to access the water based portions of the marina.

The current and future plans for the Summers End Marina pose significant and indisputable risks to the community and its environment within a designated Virgin Islands Area of Particular Concern, adjacent to the Virgin Islands National Park and the U.S. Coral Reef National Monument. The project provides no tangible public benefits to the community while the negative short and long term effects include substantial risks to public health, tourism and the economic base that sustains the community.

The project as designed will create catastrophic environmental risks and irreparable harm to the natural resources of Coral Bay, the East End, the Park, the Coral Reef National Monument and the surrounding natural environment.

The current project plan for the Summers End Marina is unsustainable in the long term because of its planned size and the broad negative impacts it will have on the community, island infrastructure and the sensitive marine environment. Coral Bay is a progressive community shaping its own future through planning and cooperation. The residents and visitors to Coral Bay were purposely left out of the planning process by the developers, the Virgin Islands Government and the US Fish and Wildlife Service who provided grant funding for an ineligible and clearly negative project.

The Board of Directors and the members of the Island Green Living Association of St. John formally request that the US Army Corp of Engineers deny this application based on the indisputable risks and hazards that this project poses to every aspect of the community and island life.

Island Green Living Association, Inc.
William Willigerod, AIA, Director/Co-Founder/Immediate past President