Runoff

Here is an article from the Source, St. John's on-line newspaper. You can read this and other stories at www.stjohnsource.com.

On St. John, Dirt Roads Lead to Dirty Reefs
By Lynda Lohr — July 30, 2010

Marine scientist Sarah Gray.

Last week's deluges were welcomed by Sarah Gray, a professor of marine science and environmental studies at the University of San Diego, as they gave her the chance to study runoff and sedimentation on St. John under storm conditions.

Speaking Friday at Maho Bay Camps Pavilion Restaurant, Gray has the science to back up what most residents can see with their eyes. She said the island’s coral reef ecosystem is damaged by land-based pollution and sedimentation, the result of St. John’s recent extensive development.

“But it’s not that hard to solve on a local level. You need the political will, which you have,” Gray said to the 50 or so people at Maho.

Gray cited earlier research showing St. John’s numerous dirt roads cause five to nine times greater sedimentation than controls.

“And the number of dirt roads increased dramatically in the last 30 years,” Gray said.

But other factors such as global warming, ocean acidification, over-fishing, hurricanes, diseases and coral bleaching are harder to tackle locally, Gray said.

This is the fourth year Gray and her team of students worked on St. John. She has monitoring sites at Great Lameshur Bay, Fish Bay and Coral Bay. The Lameshur site sits in an undeveloped area within V.I. National Park and essentially serves as a control.

Her studies show that the Lameshur area has little sedimentation. Fish Bay has lots of sediment on the reefs, but Coral Bay’s sediment problem is along the shoreline. In studying the Coral Bay area, Gray’s team discovered that the sedimentation at Calabash Boom, the site of the recently built Calabash Boom affordable housing project, is less than at the Shipwreck site in an adjacent bay. Gray attributed this to the installation of sediment ponds at Calabash Boom.

“Shipwreck is not mitigated,” she said.

The shoreline near the town of Coral Bay shows surprisingly less sediment, but Gray said this was probably due to the mangroves serving as filters.

Her studies include evaluating sediment suspended in the water, accumulated in sediment traps and on the sea floor, Gray said. Her team processes the samples at the V.I. Environmental Resource Station lab, located at Lameshur Bay, before sending the samples off to their labs at the University of San Diego for more in-depth analysis.

The Coral Bay Community Council has ongoing projects to mitigate the impact of development on Coral Bay. President Sharon Coldren said the organization received $1 million in federal economic stimulus funds and $300,000 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to address the problem.

“But it will take $13 million to $15 million to take care of our bay,” she said.

Leftovers

I might eat leftovers today, even though I might not.

279

279 = 1 x 279

Wicked!

Microsoft Office

I installed Microsoft Office because I couldn't make the other softwares do what I needed them to do.

And today I will put everything in the dock or applications or desktop, or wherever those stupid things go to get out of the way.

277

277 = 1 x 277

Wicked!

So what!

So what if the baseball announcers say "runners at the corners"

I'll tell you what.
What?
What. I told you I'd tell you what.

The Boston Red Sox have the best record of any major league team in Boston baseball.

I'll bet

I'll bet that 275 is divisible by a few things.

275 = 5 x 5 x 11

Wicked!

My recliner

My recliner is here, and I actually sat in it yesterday. It rocks and glides and swivels in the down position, and swivels in the up position. Smells like leather.

And it actually fits.

The other chair it replaced is now in my little office in the basement.

I suppose someday I should fix the ceiling down here.

Wicked!

273

273 = 3 x 91

Wicked!

Recliner today

I think that today I will be able to get my recliner.

At least I think so.

You never know when dinks get in the way and prevent things from being done.

Boston Red Sox

The Boston Red Sox won again yesterday by outscoring the opponents, some dink team from somewhere. The Sox are wicked this year.

Rain

It has rained for about 4 straight days, and everyone is tired of it. The weather is usually very sunny and clear this time of year. At least we don't have to worry about any people staying at our place, because we don't have any.

Free flights

I got free flights all the way to Hawaii through AADVANTAGE. For two awards -- one of 17,500 miles outbound, and one of 37,500 miles inbound first class (one segment is redeye, so it needs to be first class).

That was pretty wicked. I like American because their frequent flyer program is easy to use.

Wicked!

Favorites

The Boston Celtics, The Greatest Franchise In The History Of Sport, are favorites to win the NBA Championship again, with the signing of 6-time All-NBA forward/center, 6'11" Jermaine O'Neal.

Even people who are nothing but doom and gloom are ecstatic about this signing.

Wicked wicked!

Red Sox Win for the Umpteenth Consecutive Time

The Boston Red Sox won for the Umpteenth and Wickedest Consecutive Time yesterday by underscoring texas.

What is in my clipboard?

I think I'll see what is in my clipboard.

“He’s versatile,’’ said Celtics president Danny Ainge. “He can catch and finish. He can score on the post left hand, right hand. He’s a good weak-side shot blocker and he’s been a decent rebounder as well.’’

Well, well, a quote about new Celtic Jermaine O'Neal.

Wicked!

Tabs

Scott A. Hills aka ultmast showed me how to do tabs yesterday.

Windows/t opens a new tab. Now I can have multiple Firefox tabs open at the same time. I can also have multiple documents open and can view them all with F9.

Wicked!

David Ortiz

David Ortiz won the home run derby last night, and he is going to stay at one of my villas to celebrate. St. John Villa Rental is www.stjohnvillarental.com.

Mac Mini

I may have my Mac Mini installed today. May. May not. It all depends.

Forget it

You can forget it -- "it" being the miniscule chance that the miami shitheads will win even their division next year. They will be the most hated team in the nba ever. A big bunch of douchebags who have won nothing ever.

No-one returns calls

This is a moment of non-returned phone calls.

Dinks, all of them.

Including dish network, of course. Two dinks.

Wicked dinky.

259

259 = 1 x 259, which is

WICKED!

Shutters

Shutters almost done.

However, the dish network un-licensed non-distributor came by yesterday and fiddled around, accomplishing nothing.

I have to cut a tree down.

Then I have to build a platform, raising the antenna.

257

257 = 1 x 257.

Wicked!

We underscored them and won!

The Red Sox won their millionth straight game this season.

Yes, 1,000,000 games won and 0 games lost.

Wicked.

Research

I just did some research in my little library off my office.

Had to do it before going upstairs.

However, I got a Captain G. Piecost on my crossword, including an Edit of the creator.

Saturday crossword

Too hard to do the ny times crossword, since it is wicked. M does it.

I have to do the other one.

Day off

The New England teams all had a day off yesterday, but they all won by acclimation, which is a wicked good way to win.

They are all acclaimed.

Dinks

Those dinks at broadbandvi had three days of total outages, never returned a phone call, and are dinks!