ST. JOHN - Aiming to reduce runoff down steep hillsides and into ocean waters, a group of environmental specialists, territorial officials and St. John residents gathered Monday to develop a watershed management plan for Coral Bay.

Federal support is enabling the creation of the plan, a pilot project for the Virgin Islands. To protect coral reefs from sediment and stormwater runoff, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Coral Reef division is funding a multi-year training and management program in all U.S. territories.

Specialists from the Center for Watershed Protection in Maryland, the project contractor, went to Coral Bay last week. They toured about two dozen sites there, examining the drainage patterns of roads, guts, ditches and other flood-prone trouble spots.

On Monday, residents met at the John's Folly Learning Institute to discuss the preliminary findings and recommendations of watershed specialists Anne Kitchell and Jennifer Zielinski.

More than 20 Coral Bay residents attended the meeting, co-hosted by the V.I. Department of Planning and Natural Resources and the Coral Bay Community Council.

Although some residents vented frustration over years of government inaction on improving the watershed, others expressed optimism about the new project and the priorities of the current gubernatorial administration.

"It's up to us not to get locked in the past," Coral Bay Community Council president Sharon Coldren said. "We need to go forward and say, 'How should it be, and what can I do to make it that way?'"

Some of the watershed specialists' first 10 high-priority recommendations are:

- Hiring a full-time Coral Bay watershed manager. Such technical expertise could be hired through the EPA's stewardship initiative or lent by the coming St. John planner, Center for Watershed Protection experts suggested. DPNR's Division of Comprehensive and Coastal Zone Planning recently began advertising for the island's long-promised planner position.

The amount of funding that the EPA will put toward the stewardship initiative has not yet been determined, V.I. coordinator Jim Casey said, but funding a watershed manager's salary "is not out of the realm of possibility."

- Completing a comprehensive, long-term community development plan. A Virgin Islands Comprehensive Land and Water Use Plan was developed and proposed in 1994 but never adopted.

"This is huge," Kitchell said. "Most communities have comprehensive management plans, and you guys don't. I don't see how you can move forward if you don't know where your threats are, where your vulnerabilities are, and where you want to be."

- Improving enforcement of environmental regulations. Public-private partnerships could be established with the government, using trained residents to keep authorities informed, as has long been done in Hawaii, resident Gary Ray suggested.

- Establishing a unified approach to road design, construction, ownership and maintenance. Coral Bay has a prevalence of dirt roads that should be paved, residents agreed. Roads should be clearly public or private, with maintenance responsibilities assigned, Kitchell added.

- Adopting Coral Bay-specific site design standards for new development.

- Identifying and protecting critical conservation areas.

The team expects to submit a draft watershed management plan to territorial officials by the end of the month, Kitchell said. DPNR then will post it on the agency's website for public comment, representative Jean-Pierre Oriol said.

- Contact Lynn Freehill at 774-8772 ext. 311 or e-mail lfreehill@dailynews.vi.