Calabash Boom area residents are fed up with months of noise, odor and safety issues related to the sewage treatment plant at the Calabash Boom affordable housing project. While resident say the noise situation is slightly improved, that’s not saying much, as the initial problem had them sleeping with doors and windows closed—and wearing earplugs.
"It sounded like we were living on an airport tarmac," Calabash Boom resident Antonette Badami said Monday to about 30 people gathered at Sputnik Bar and Restaurant on Coral Bay for a meeting on the issues.
Badami heads an ad hoc group of residents living in the affordable housing units and in the private residences that sprawl along the hillside above the affordable housing units. She said that some of the affordable housing unit residents told her they were afraid to complain publicly for fear they’d be kicked out of their apartments.
According to Badami, the problem began when the sewage treatment plant started up April 2. Since then, Badami said that she and other area residents corresponded with the developer, Reliance Housing Foundation head Robert Jackson, without entirely resolving the issue.
Reliance tried several fixes, none of which completely solved the problem. Badami said the residents are now living with a constant hum from the sewage treatment plant. She said this situation is unacceptable in this rural area.
Meanwhile, residents living in the affordable housing units began smelling a sewage odor. Badami said that some of those residents also have views that include the brown water of the sewage treatment plant.
"It’s a residential, not a commercial-zoned, area," Badami said.
And residents also noticed that the fence surrounding the plant could easily be scaled and the gate was never closed, Badami said.
"We were there tonight and the gate was open. That’s a liability issue," Planning and Natural Resources Commissioner Robert Mathes said.
Mathes, two of his staff and Housing Finance Authority Director Clifford Graham trekked out to Coral Bay Monday to hear residents’ concerns.
After listening to Badami and others outline the problems, Mathes suggested that "moral suasion" may convince Jackson to solve the problems. He said that while Reliance has a slew of Planning-issued permits, those permits don’t give Planning "much leverage" with Reliance when it comes to resolving the residents’ complaints.
If "moral suasion" doesn’t work, Mathes said that the sewage odor would impede the sale of the 24 townhouses to be sold as affordable housing through the Housing Finance Authority. The other 48 apartments are rented.
Jackson is flying into St. Thomas next week to meet with Mathes about these issues, as well as storm water issues, Mathes said.
"We’ll do our best to convince him to do more," Mathes said.
