While global warming increases unabated, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported that toxic releases from the Virgin Islands at the source rank 52 of 56 (with one being the highest) in data collected between 2013 and 2022 – a decrease of 21 percent. The territory ranked 30 of 56 in 2021.
The report is available to the public on the EPA website.
Coincidentally, the Limetree Bay refinery closed in July 2021 and the refinery has not refined oil since then.
“Disposal into the environment should be a last resort and must be done in an environmentally safe manner,” Carlos Vega, EPA’s Region 2 public information officer, wrote to the Source in an email. “The law defines source reduction as practices that minimize hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants entering waste streams before recycling, treatment or disposal.”
EPA reported that facilities said they managed 88.5 percent of their Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) chemical waste through recycling, energy recovery and treatment and released 11.5 percent into the environment in 2022.
According to the EPA, Region 2 releases and disposal totaled 34.1 million pounds in 2022. Since 2013, air emissions have decreased by 40 percent and surface water discharges by 23 percent.
The TRI requires industries that manufacture, process or use significant amounts of toxic chemicals to report annually how they are released – into the air, water, land or underground injection or sent to other facilities for disposal.
Chemicals covered by the TRI include those that cause or affect cancer, other chronic health effects, or significant adverse environmental effects. The current list includes more than 827 individual chemicals and 33 chemical categories.
The EPA reported the top five facilities, by total release on St. Croix in 2022, were Limetree Bay Terminals DBA Ocean Point Terminal, Cruzan Rum, the V.I. Water and Power Authority and Port Hamilton Refining and Transportation LLLP. That year, 98,000 pounds were released into the air and 11 pounds into the water.
The 2021 releases in the Virgin Islands totaled 2.5 million pounds. The report states the majority of the releases were again from the St. Croix refinery, with almost 352,000 pounds released into the air, 27,000 in the water and 217 into the ground. Sixteen pounds were released off-site and the rest contained at the refinery on the South Shore.
The facilities on St. Thomas that reported to the EPA were Heavy Materials, LLC, Saint Thomas Bulk Terminal and VIWAPA – all reported zero transfers of the named chemicals.
Limetree Bay had been accused of emitting air pollution and oil droplets and was closed as a result. Claims of pollution and oil drops affecting the surrounding neighborhoods were frequent over the years.
There were several changes to TRI reporting in 2022. Some sterilization facilities were required to report their handling of 6.3 million pounds of ethylene oxide waste. The natural gas processing sector, including over 300 facilities, was also required to report on the 115 pounds of chemicals disposed of, mostly in underground injection wells.
The St. Croix refinery had been operated for more than 50 years by Hess Oil, the Hess Oil Virgin Islands Corporation (HOVIC) and then HOVENSA, a partnership between Amerada Hess Corp. and Venezuela’s state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA).
