Millions of gallons of sewage a day are being discharged into the sea from the disabled Figtree Pump Station as the Department of Public Works awaits a part to arrive from the United Kingdom.
The cause of the 1.7 million-gallon-a-day sewage spill into Cane Garden Bay on St. Croix’s south shore, just east of the Hovensa refinery, is an electrical problem, according to Public Works officials.
The spill started late in the afternoon on Aug. 28 when the control board for the lone operating pump at the station failed. Wayne Callwood, acting Public Works commissioner, said Friday that repairs at the pump station are "ongoing."
"The urgently needed parts for the pumps can only be obtained from Europe," Callwood said. "Therefore, its arrival will be longer than we anticipated."
Public Works officials said Tuesday that it could take another week for the part to get to St. Croix.
In the meantime, Callwood said Public Works is working to put in place a diesel auxiliary pump to move sewage past the disabled pump station on to St. Croix’s wastewater treatment plant. However, the four-inch pump Public Works has access to cannot handle the volume of sewage that comes into Figtree, so the department, under a court order issued by District Court Judge Thomas Moore in May, has to order a six-inch pump.
Moore learned last week, though, that the larger pump was just being assembled by a company on the mainland.
The Figtree Pump Station is supposed to be outfitted with three pumps. But Public Works has only managed to get one online to run the station. If the sole pump breaks down, as it did last week, sewage is bypassed into the sea.
Many of the territory’s wastewater problems predate 1984, when the territorial and federal governments entered into a consent decree. Problems were again addressed in a 1996 amendment to the consent decree. Because of the ongoing illegal discharges on St. Croix, Moore issued an order in February setting specific deadlines for Public Works to make repairs. He then filed a subsequent order in late May for specific repairs to be made by June 30.
Moore issued extensions to July 17 and July 30 for Public Works to complete work on the other two Figtree pumps. The deadlines haven’t been met, reportedly because the contractor hired to rebuild the backup pumps is awaiting a $7,000 payment for past work.
Public Works had problems similar to those at Figtree at the LBJ Pump Station near Christiansted. The department, however, has repaired the station in accordance with Moore’s order.
