My heartiest congratulations go out to Gov. John deJongh Jr., the citizens of the Virgin Islands and all the individuals who fought the good fight and made a quantum leap forward toward the preservation of paradise.

The spoils resulting from the dredging of St. Thomas Harbor cannot, and should not, be dumped anywhere that would cause a delicate ecological system to be compromised.

If "the preservation of paradise" is truly your mantra, this decision could serve as the catalyst for future hard choices that the USVI is faced with as you address your monumental waste problems and energy issues.

Our company, NuEnergy Initiatives LLC, responded to a Request for Proposals by The V.I. Waste Management Authority earlier this year. We presented an environmentally sensitive and safe "alternative" proposal that would utilize the waste created through our tire-shredding process and then by combining the tire waste with hazardous household materials along with medical waste in our gasification process we would produce electricity for public use without the harmful emissions caused by other processes.

The alternative disposal method for hazardous materials and medical waste is packaging and shipping "offshore" (Who wants my dangerous trash?) which incurs substantial tipping fees. This is a practice that will cease to be available in the very near future. We have to be responsible for our own waste.

We are still awaiting a decision from Waste Management on our common sense proposal.

Preservation of paradise cannot be just a catch phrase: It must be lived every day by all residents and legislators to achieve this very obtainable goal.

The Virgin Islands has the opportunity to become a model for the rest of the world and all of humankind.

- John P. Lenhard is president and CEO of NuEnergy Initiatives based in East Lansing, Mich.