Protect The Great Salt Pond
Stop Landfill Expansion, Dumping, and Pollution in the Great Salt Pond
We the undersigned, petition the Parliament of St. Martin in Philipsburg, St. Martin, to immediately put in place zoning legislation to conserve the Great Salt Pond from any and all further landfill expansion, dumping, and pollution in keeping with the following:
Key Objectives
- Oppose the expansion of the Great Salt Pond landfill (the "dump"; the so-called "Pond Island," and no further extension of the planned "ring road" located in the city of Philipsburg, traditionally called Great Bay, St. Martin, and assure the enforcement of appropriate oversight of the landfill and the garbage dump's current operations.
- Assure the protection of people, wildlife, and the wetlands from the negative health and environmental effects from air, water, odor, and noise pollution arising from operation of the dump.
- Redirect and enhance the Territory's government's approach to the landfill and wetlands to consider the Great Salt Pond as part of a "national" resource to conserve to benefit the nation's people and to protect property instead of permitting the landfill to expand and remain as location for the Territory's main garbage dump.
- Include solid waste management for government agencies as a fundamental element of urban and Territorial planning -- and where applicable island-wide co-planning with the Collectivity of St. Martin -- including contingency planning, closure and abatement planning, and studying and considering alternative technologies and dump site locations.
- Preserve and protect the Great Salt Pond as a public educational and environmental resource, "green" recreational zone and heritage site for the people of St. Martin to appreciate its sociocultural and historical significance, natural beauty, and critical role in the ecosystems of the city and environs in particular -- inclusive of guts, mangroves, Pelican, Freshwater Pond, Great Bay Harbor coral reef -- and of our island in general.
