Feb. 4, 2003 – Funding of $5.4 million for capital improvements to the territory's wastewater treatment system is included in the $2.23 trillion federal budget for 2004 proposed on Monday by President Bush.
Delegate Donna M. Christensen said in a release that the grant is part of a promise made by former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt to provide the Virgin Islands $10 million a year for five years to assist in bringing the territory's wastewater treatment plants into federal compliance.
The territory is operating under a consent decree from the U.S. Justice Department. Originally issued in District Court in 1984 and amended in 1996, the decree ordered the local government to bring its sewage treatment system up into comliance with federal guidelines by 2004. This was found to be neither physically nor financially possible.
A July 2002 deal gives the government until Feb 28, 2006, to bring St. Croix into compliance and until Feb. 28, 2007, to do the same for St. Thomas.
St. John's new sewage treatment plant went on line in 2001, and its treatment system is not in need of any major changes.
Gov. Charles W. Turnbull has said that the needed sewage treatment improvements will cost at least $60 million.
While there is no guarantee that $5.4 million grant in the 2004 federal budget will survive scrutiny by the U.S. House of Representative and Senate, Christensen said, it is a start. "The inclusion of these funds in the president's budget greatly enhances our ability to actually receive the funds," she said.
However, Bill Turner, executive director of the St. Croix Environmental Association, said a more important need is for the territory to come up with a plan to prioritize the wastewater treatment improvements. "Before money is awarded, a project should be lined up," he said.
Turner also said the grant money would be used for secondary treatment facilities, which use microbes to further break down the sewage after the solids are removed in the primary treatment facility. This does not address the problems with sewage plant breakdowns, faulty pump stations and line failures, he said, and "these are thing that cause sewage to run into the streets."
Rather than building traditional treatment plans costing millions of dollars, Turner suggested, the territory should utilize new wetland technology that is much cheaper. He said the $5.4 million would go a long way toward that type of effort.
Publisher's note : Like the St. Croix Source now? Find out how you can love us twice as much — and show your support for the islands' free and independent news voice … click here.
