National Clean Up Day!

In preparation for the Pacific Arts Festival later this month, the governor issued a territory-wide clean up day in American Samoa. All government agencies were assigned a specific stretch of road or beach to clean. Since the National Marine Sanctuary Office is housed in the Department of Commerce, I had the pleasure of spending the day cleaning Utulei Beach, located directly accross the street from none other than the sewage plant! Fortunately the smells weren't too bad but the rain and wind did present a bit of a hurdle. Nevertheless everyone really pitched in, collecting garbage (mostly beer bottles and soda cans), mowing the lawn, pulling weeds, etc...and by the end of the day our section looked really great. Our success may have been in part due to our fabulous matching blue t-shirts, which came in XL, XXL, and XXXL and read: D.O.C in huge letters on the back. However on our way home we noticed that the Office of Public Works (who really should have been responsible for the entire clean up in the first place) had decided to bull doze the beach in their assigned area. I conveniently happened to be driving with the one person on the island who issues permits for such things and as it turned out they had had not received any type of clearance to do anything other than "clean the beach" (hence national clean up day). So we pulled over to issue a stop order to save what little remained of the haphazardly bull dozed beach only to learn that the Governor not only approved of the project but he had actually requested the destruction ensue. Apparently the Governor doesn't need a permit!