TROUBLE IN PARADISE: AN OVERVIEW OF ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES IN THE US-AFFILIATED PACFIC

John McCarroll, US EPA

Say the words “ Pacific Islands” and what comes to mind for many people are images of a tropical paradise. Yet the US-affiliated Pacific Islanders suffer from very basic and severe public health and environmental problems. For example, many people are not able to turn on the faucet and drink clean, safe water. In the Pacific Islands, providing basic environmental services is an issue almost every island government has to wrestle with.

Lack of potable water, beach closures, contaminated fish, fragile coral reefs, unexploded munitions from World War II, illegal dumps, leaking fuel tanks, frequent typhoons and changing weather patterns—these impact people’s daily lives in the Pacific to a degree that most Americans would find surprising. Pacific Islanders’ health, income, and overall quality of life are tied to the environment in a fundamental way.

The US Environmental Protection Agency is working in partnership with leaders in the US territories—Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI)—and the former US trust territories now in free association with the US—Palau, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia—and others to address these problems.

EPA uses a variety of tools to help improve the environment and local environmental protection capacity. In the US territories this includes grant funding, training and technical assistance, enforcement, and partnership with others on special initiatives. One example is an initiative to make it easier and less expensive to raise capital for environmental infrastructure projects. In the freely associated states EPA partners with others to provide training and technical assistance.