Major oil spill on SW coast of St. Maarten - 13th June 2005

Three-mile oil spill affects Simpson Bay to Cupecoy
- Daily Herald - 14 June 2005

It was reported to SXM PE by SXM Pride Foundation.

The press release below was sent to the local media on Tuesday 14th by SXM Pride. (links added for reference.)

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES CAN MAKE OR BREAK OUR LIVELYHOOD.

This past week, environmental foundations have been busy reporting several issues affecting the island that can make or break everyone's livelyhood.

First there was a pond at the Dawn Beach, developers there in their attempt to remove one of our natural catchments for rainwater coming from the hill, deliberately pumped the pond water into the Atlantic Ocean creating an environmental hazard. By doing this they have contributed to damaging the coral reefs and creating a health hazard as well. It is incomprehensible that our government and government agencies such as the Inspection Department who should be monitering these types of illegalities has never even showed up to the site to make a report.

The environmental foundations has taken it upon themselves to file a report of this incident with police affairs and the public prosecutors office. The developers of BabitBay Beach development has in the meantime drained and filled the pond, this created another unsightly mess after the heavy rains we had on friday swept the topsoil into the Atlantic Ocean, again damaging the coral reefs and again making that part of the Ocean unswimmable and unhealthy.

As if all of this is not enough for our tourism island, we then experienced one of the largest oilspills ever seen. As was reported, a three mile oil spill affected the Simpsonbay beach, Mullet Bay beach, Cupecoy and is still drifting out to the French Lowlands. Sint Maarten PRIDE foundation checked on Tuesday morning the water at Mullet Bay and Cupecoy, while there was no floating substance sighted, the water still had an oily residue. Some of the cays and rocks lining the coastline still has some oil trapped.

We are questioning why our government is not taking an oilspill contingency plan seriously, and including such a plan with the Disaster Management Commitee? There is no contingency plan for cleaning up such a mess and worst of all the island does not have the tools.

We are advising to our government that all Marinas, GEBE, OILMOP,SHELL, TEXACO and other fuel bulk stations should at least have a plan in place to clean up their own mess and also help clean up large unaccounted for oil spills. So within a space of week, we have not one beach but several beaches affected by an environmental disaster.

For an island that depends on tourism, I can tell you that marketing this island as a beach island will be a hard sell if we do not pay first hand attention to our environment. We are approaching at a crossroads where we as Sint Maarteners have to ask ourselves if we need more of the same developments, do we need more hotel rooms? do we need more traffic? do we need more cars on the roads? more casino's? more marina's? more condo's?

It is disturbing to read that the TOURMAP is suggesting that in the near future the dutch part of the island will have 7000 hotel rooms. The average soul can see that our island is not engaging in sustainable development. Our government is allowing developers to remove ponds, change our landscape, fill in the Simpson Bay Lagoon to their liking, remove trees and mangroves, when are we going to say enough is quite enough?

What was once the largest or one of the largest inland water bodies in the Caribbean has turned into a wasteland, filled in everywhere, commercial traffic, many areas has garbage, boat wrecks that only god knows how he will get rid of them. The once majestic Simpson Bay Lagoon is a good example of the destruction that man can do to his natural environment all in the name of greed and progress.

In closing I do hope that the average St.Maartener is paying attention and will insist to our government that paying lipserve to our environment is not good enough, our government has to do more, and it is our rightfull duty to mandate to developers that they incorporate our natural ponds into their development. Many developments worldwide are digging ponds to add to their hotel property, here on St.Maarten we are letting greedy developers remove what mother nature gave us.

Just remember, that our quality of life depends on the quality of our environment.
And for those of you who don't get it: keep polluting and destroying our beaches and ocean, polluting and destroying our lagoon and ponds, and you can kiss your
tourism dollars goodbye.

Sint Maarten PRIDE Foundation.