While no one really knows the environmental damage caused by the V.I. government’s decades-long struggle to operate its wastewater systems in compliance with federal regulations, the monetary impact is now surfacing.
The U.S. Justice Department’s Environmental Enforcement Section and the V.I. government are negotiating fines that will run into the millions of dollars because of the local government’s inability to meet U.S. Clean Water Act Standards.
The two parties originally entered into a consent decree in 1984 aimed at bringing the territory’s sewage system into compliance with federal law. But because the V.I. Public Works Department made no substantial progress in more than a decade, a federal judge amended the consent decree in 1996.
Public Works then failed to meet standards set in the amended decree and was ultimately fined $375,000 and $400,000 for 1996 violations. With each amount, the V.I. government was required to put $2 million and $1 million respectively into a trust to fund future wastewater projects.
The fines, however, don’t end with 1996. Michael Law, an assistant attorney general with the V.I. Justice Department, could only say that settlement negotiations for 1997 are ongoing while discussions on 1998 and 1999 haven’t even been broached.
"Right now, 1997 is the only thing we are discussing," Law said.
According to Donald Frankel, an attorney in the U.S. Justice Department, a settlement amount for 1997 should be submitted to District Court Judge Thomas K. Moore "in a couple of weeks."
Last week, Gov. Charles Turnbull submitted legislation to the Senate that would appropriate no more than $750,000 from the Indirect Cost Fund for fiscal year 2000 to Public Works "to fund the partial payment of the negotiated settlement agreement relative to the 1997 penalties assessed against the government of the Virgin Islands by the Environmental Protection Agency for wastewater violations."
Although Turnbull later pulled that and other sections of his legislation, an individual familiar with the consent decree said the 1997, 1998 and 1999 settlement amounts would likely be in the neighborhood of the 1996 fines.
The fines are set by stipulations outlined in the consent decree, Frankel said, adding that it would be lifted once mandated discharge limits are met consistently. The consent decree also calls for the construction of, among other projects, the new Mangrove Lagoon Wastewater Treatment Plant and the recently completed wastewater plant on St. John.
Still, the prospect of fines continuing into the new century are quite real. Public Works has already racked up $630,000 in discharge violations for April, May and June of this year at wastewater treatment plants primarily on St. Thomas.
"There’s a lot to be done under the decree," Frankel said. "It is a long way from being terminated."
