Local motorised sports enthusiasts were no doubt happy to learn of a new plan for a quarter-mile drag strip (see Saturday paper). Talk about creating such a local race track has been going on for years.

Nevertheless, the presentation by Sports and Tourism Commissioner Frans Richardson is reason for some concern. The intention is to build the drag strip next to Pond Island, which means that even more of Great Salt Pond will have to be filled in than is already being done for the ring road project.

The commissioner acknowledged this problem and said provisions would have to be made to protect Philipsburg and the race track from flooding. He even suggested that installing one more pump would suffice, even though a new study on this matter has been commissioned and should be completed soon.

The latter is important, because it was announced in an article in this newspaper's July 5 edition that the temporary drainage pipes placed along the ring road to prevent flooding of the surroundings had failed to do so after only moderate rainfall, because they had moved below the water level. It was then decided – also in light of the hurricane season – to remove huge piles of sand placed for the ring road and allow the excess water to flow directly into the pond again.

Since then there has been little or no word on the impact of this setback on the project and its cost. While bigger, permanent drainage structures of approximately three by three metres were said to be planned at the ring road, the question remains what happens during the rest of the construction period after the sand piles are placed there again.

In general, great care needs to be taken not to overburden the already polluted Salt Pond, which has become smaller and smaller over the years due to the – legal or illegal – filling in of land. Some (see letter to the editor in Monday's paper) believe enough is enough, also because of Great Salt Pond's great historic and cultural value, an opinion that is sure to be shared by many local environmentalists.

So the question is justified whether a drag strip cannot be built on existing and preferably already cleared land so that it does not have such a negative impact on the island's nature, much of which has already been lost. In other words: Nothing against a racetrack, but not at the further expense of the environment that has already paid a heavy price for economic development.