Participants of the CNMI erosion and sediment control contractor training and certification program demonstrated at the Pacific Islands Club yesterday what they had learned from a two-day training.
Kathleen Hermann of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s coral reef management said people usually select erosion control practices that are more expensive and ineffective.
The training sessions, she said, provided hands-on lessons on how to protect the environment and save money.
Hermann said they also invited local suppliers so that construction firms would know where to buy needed supplies.
Lists of local vendors and online suppliers in the U.S. were likewise provided to the participants.
“We are trying to connect people together, pointing out how all this is impacting the coral reef system in the islands where tourism is an important economic activity,” Hermann said.
The training, she added, was funded by the coral reef initiative because land-based pollution has one of the greatest impacts on the coral reef of Saipan.
DEQ engineer Brian Bearden said erosion and sedimentation have adverse economic impacts on the island.
If construction sites wash all the sediments to the breach, tourists may have bad impression of the island, he said.
Sediments kill coral reef which will affect the fish, thus affecting the environmental and economic resources of the island as well, he added.
