A ruptured pipe at Public Works’ LBJ Pump Station sent sewage flowing into the sea early Friday morning, the first time the problem-plagued station has spilled in more than four months.
Dean Plaskett, commissioner of the Department of Planning and Natural Resources, said his agency found out about the "catastrophic" line break in the pressurized sewage pipe that leads away from the pump station early Friday. Until the pipe can be repaired, he said, Public Works will use a temporary diesel pump to divert sewage through an outfall pipe beyond Long Reef.
On Friday afternoon a large volume of water flowed from the pump station, under a fence and through the sand to the ocean. Large puddles of smelly, standing water surrounded the pump station just a few hundred feet away from a row of homes.
As of Friday evening, no estimates were given on the amount of sewage being diverted to the sea, but during peak flows the pump station handles approximately 1.2 million gallons a day.
"Over the last few months we haven’t had this sort of discharge," said Plaskett, who said he didn’t think the sewage had gone past Mill Harbor toward Christiansted.
Still, he advised the public to refrain from using the waters in LBJ area and outside Long Reef until the problem is corrected. Plaskett also warned residents in the surrounding housing communities to avoid standing water, guts, puddles and drainage basins in the area.
While the LBJ Pump Station has been operating well since October, a rupture in a pressurized line near the JFK housing community in mid-October also caused Public Works to discharge over Long Reef until the pipe could be fixed.
The repairs to LBJ and other parts of the wastewater system were done under order of U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Moore. Moore’s recent orders are amendments to the original 1984 consent decree between the federal and the local governments aimed at bringing the territory’s wastewater treatment systems into compliance with the federal Clean Water Act.
Public Works officials didn’t return calls Friday afternoon, but Government House spokesman Lee Vanterpool said, "We do hope it can be addressed as soon as possible."
