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Addressing water contamination problem in American Samoa progressing, EPA report says
The United States Environmental Protection Agency released yesterday their 2008 progress report for the Pacific South West Region (Region IX), which covers western states and Pacific territories including American Samoa.
The report cites environmental infrastructure problems faced by the US Pacific territories saying, “In American Samoa, 17% of residents have been exposed to Leptospirosis – a bacterial disease – as a consequence of piggeries contaminating water.”
Additionally, in the past, raw sewage contaminated the territory’s drinking water wells and surface waters.
The over 100 page report looks at environmental progress and problems last year, from clean air, land, and water, to community progress. It says that American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), and Guam “face disproportionately severe environmental infrastructure problems.”
According to the report, with help from the EPA, American Samoa is using outreach, compliance assistance, enforcement, and a polluted runoff prevention program to address water contamination from small piggeries.
Earlier this week, Region IX presented to the American Samoa Environmental Protection Agency a plaque to recognize the local Piggery Compliance Program which was launched over a year ago.
The EPA is using grants, technical assistance, and collaborative approaches to support community-based leadership in solving environmental problems, as well as geographic information systems (GIS) tools to target enforcement, grants, and other resources to the island communities most heavily impacted, and also the most vulnerable.
The USEPA, in collaboration with these diverse island territories, has focused resources and formed partnerships in an effort to promote public health and environmental improvements.
The report says that in return, these same communities help EPA integrate environmental justice priorities into the agency’s everyday work. The goal is to ensure that all communities have meaningful involvement in decisions that affect them, and that all people have clean air, water, and land where they live, work, and play.
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