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CRM: Lau Lau Bay sedimentation problem identified as a priority
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Posted on Mar 17 2005
Coastal Resources Management has made solving the sedimentation problem in Lau Lau Bay one of its top priorities.
Deputy director Steve Tilley said his office is currently designing road improvements that would prevent sediments from being washed from the roads and into the bay.
He said the project got bigger when Typhoon Chaba wreaked havoc on the island last August 2004, washing all the sediments from the road to the coral reef, damaging a lot of corals.
Three years ago, the CNMI Water Quality Assessment Report described the reefs on Lau Lau Bay as disturbed. That time the CRM identified sediment runoff into Lau Lau Bay as the cause of the deterioration of the near shore coral reef environment.
Tilley said the CRM has expanded the project and it is now an interagency project. Currently, the CRM is closely working with the Department of Public Works, Division of Environmental Quality, Natural Resources Conservation Services, Northern Marianas College, and the Department of Lands and Natural Resources on the project.
“We are trying to work with all agencies to try and solve the problems in the long run,” he added.
CRM said Tilley is also working with private property owners and that they are now in negotiations with them. He also said that CRM is going to get volunteer groups to be involved in the project. Among these groups are CNMI POWER, and MOVER, among others.
Lau Lau Bay is a popular fishing destination; it also supports herbivorous fish that graze for unwanted turf algae disturbed from the reefs. Turf algae take up nutrients faster than corals.
The worsening storm water runoff into the area increases turf algae, impacting on coral growth and population, according to Tilley.
Coral reefs not only provide habitat for different fish species and other marine life but also help mitigate global warming by taking in carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen.
CRM is also doing a similar project at the Obyan Beach, but Tilley said the project at Obyan is much simpler than at Lau Lau Bay. He said that CRM plans to work on some construction within the Obyan area, though he admitted that CRM does not have the construction funding yet.
