The Senates Committee on Planning and Natural Resources will meet Friday to discuss the woeful state of the territorys wastewater systems, including the ongoing discharges of millions of gallons of raw sewage into the sea off of St. Croix and sewage treatment plants on St. Thomas that have trouble meeting minimal discharge standards.
According to committee chairman Sen. Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg, the meeting will focus on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys proposal to deny the Department of Public Works waiver application that would excuse it from having to treat sewage at a secondary level.
Public Works current inability to manage discharges from its wastewater treatment plants at the primary level, which means removing solids from liquid before discharging into the ocean, doesnt bode well because secondary treatment entails higher and more expensive standards.
Secondary treatment uses chemical and biological methods to clean sewage before it is discharged outside a treatment plant. In the territorys case, that means pumping treated sewage out to sea.
The EPA has tentatively denied the territorys waiver of the U.S. Clean Water Act that requires the treatment of sewage at the secondary level. The waiver has been pending for some 15 years in the hope that Public Works would meet primary discharge standards. That, however, hasnt occurred.
The EPAs decision was originally due in October but has been extended to take more public input. If it does indeed deny the waiver, Public Works would have three years to develop a compliance plan detailing how it would attain secondary treatment. Estimates to retrofit the territorys 12 old treatment plants, 11 on St. Thomas and one on St. Croix, have been pegged at approximately $20 million.
Existing plants would have to be brought up to current standards, like the recently completed $4 million Cruz Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant on St. John.
Because Public Works has "failed" to manage the wastewater system at the primary level, Donastorg questioned the wisdom of mandating even higher standards, especially in light of the governments economic problems.
"Obviously, I am in favor of anything that will prevent further degradation of our marine environment," Donastorg said. "Public Works has failed in its efforts to handle the sewage problem we have raw sewage flowing into our harbors and bays on a regular basis.
"We should be treating wastewater as fully as technology will allow and DPW should not even be requesting such waivers. But we must examine the resources and expertise available to handle secondary treatment before any decisions are made."
Meanwhile, the Figtree Pump Station on St. Croixs south shore, which was shut down about a month ago due to electrical problems, has been spewing approximately two million gallons a day of raw sewage into Cane Garden Bay ever since.
Additionally, in late August the EPA said Public Works had racked up more than $630,000 in fines in April, May and June for violating discharge requirements at treatment plants on St. Thomas and St. Croix.
The discharges are in violation of the consent decree entered into between the local and federal governments more than 15 years ago to repair the territorys ailing wastewater system.
Inspections by the EPA and the V.I. Department of Planning and Natural Resources in July and August indicated that the wastewater treatment plants on St. Thomas, particularly the Airport Lagoon plant, were not meeting primary discharge requirements.
The bulk of the fines for April, May and June are for some of the 11 treatment plants on St. Thomas. Only about $50,000 of the total amount of fines were for St. Croixs lone wastewater treatment plant; it was inoperable for most of those three months.
The Committee on Planning and Environmental Protection will meet on Friday at 10 a.m. in the Senate chambers on St. Thomas.
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