Amid Ongoing Hurricane Season, USVI Leans Towards Air Burning for Green Waste Management

The government of the Virgin Islands must now consider new options for managing green waste, as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers indicated to local authorities just over a year ago that it would no longer be transporting vegetative debris out of the territory.‌

Daryl Jaschen, director of the V.I. Territorial Management Agency, told lawmakers on Wednesday that “Governor Bryan will need to identify the best option of addressing 100,000s of cubic yards of green waste which will be generated as a result of a hurricane impact to the territory.”

A series of factors prompted the ban on exporting green waste, he testified during a hearing of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security, Justice and Public Safety. “No one wants that waste. No one's going to pay for that waste. The transport for that waste is extraordinary,” Mr. Jaschen revealed. As the territory braces for what forecasters are predicting will be an above-average Atlantic Hurricane Season, pinning down a solution needs to happen soon.