Attorneys for the U.S. Justice Department and V.I. Water and Power Authority heard Wednesday that a federal judge may order Finnish power company Wartsila to address emission control issues with seven generators at the Randolph Harley Power Plant on St. Thomas.

The suggestion came during a consent decree status conference held Wednesday morning virtually before U.S. District Court Judge Mark Kearney. The Justice Department launched a civil action against the utility for violating the federal Clean Air Act in 2014. The consent decree was approved in 2016 and amended in 2019. Though a federal judge agreed to terminate a similar settlement agreement for the St. Croix power plant two years ago, attorneys told Kearney Wednesday that maintenance problems at the Randolph Harley Power Plant continue to hinder the utility’s efforts to achieve and sustain compliance on St. Thomas.

“They’re doing their best to try to fix them,” said Myles Flint, of the U.S. Justice Department Environmental Enforcement Section, “and once they’re fixed and we can kind of get them on that glide path — where there’s a period of time if they’re in compliance, or substantially in compliance — then we would be able to proceed with termination.”

WAPA’s outside counsel, Robert Smith, said the plant’s lack of redundancy has prevented technicians from taking units offline to perform needed maintenance. The utility has also struggled to adapt the four newer Wartsila generators to run on liquefied propane following what WAPA Project Management Director Maxwell George described Wednesday as a “catastrophic failure” last year. Smith said all seven of the Wartsila generators are having issues with controls meant to limit the emission of nitrous oxides and carbon monoxide.

“So we’re put in this position repeatedly where we have to make the choice,” he said. “Do we continue to comply with that particular limitation, primarily related to the control of NOx emissions and the water injection … or do we turn out the lights?”

Unit 27, a legacy generator which was brought back online last month after Unit 15 failed amid repeated outages on St. Thomas and St. John, has no operational emission monitors, according to Smith.

“That’s something that’s required by the consent decree,” he said.

“Yeah, I can see that being important,” Kearney observed.

Kearney raised the subject of a court order after George and plant superintendent Kevin Harrigan said Wartsila hadn’t yet given them a timeline to fix the emission controls. When Kearney asked if it would be helpful to issue a court order directing Wartsila to be more responsive, Smith sounded skeptical.

“If it was directed to them, if we had jurisdiction over them, I think it would,” he said. “But we’ve been dealing with other vendors where we’ve told them we’re subject to EPA and DOJ requirements, and the lack of response has been just enormous.”

“Okay, well, we’re going to test that,” Kearney said. Later, Kearney said he’d give WAPA personnel time to “light a fire” under Wartsila and another contractor.

“Let’s give Mr. Harrigan a little chance to say, ‘a federal judge is looking at you now, Wartsila,’” Kearney said. “Let’s give him a chance to be a customer for a bit and start asking questions.”

For DJ Parson, the past few weeks have meant moving quickly — rehearsals, travel, and performances across multiple cities — culminating in the kind of moment most young musicians don’t often get early on: sharing a stage with Yo-Yo Ma.

The St. Thomas native, now a 16-year-old jazz trumpet major at the Interlochen Arts Academy, recently completed his first national tour, performing in Detroit, Philadelphia, and Boston as part of “Imagine U.S.: Celebrating America at 250,” a multi-disciplinary production bringing together young artists from across the country. Selected through a competitive process as the tour’s only jazz horn player, Parson contributed to both performance and original work, including music scored for a student-produced film.

For Parson, the experience marked a first. It was his first time touring across multiple cities— moving from late-night rehearsals into early travel days and back onto the stage, often with little downtime in between. At the same time, the work extended beyond performance. He contributed to an original piece developed alongside fellow students, later paired with a short film and performed live as part of the program — an example of the kind of cross-disciplinary collaboration that defined the tour.

“The experience was very fun,” he said. “Being with everyone and being able to express the music we created… to so many people—that was the best part.”

The program itself brought together music, film, and other disciplines, with students performing works ranging from a newly commissioned cello concerto by Wynton Marsalis to a reimagined version of Charles Ives’ “Symphony No. 4.” The pace was demanding, but it also offered something harder to replicate in a classroom setting — learning in real time, alongside other artists working at a high level.

Back home, that kind of environment wasn’t unfamiliar — it just looked different. While on St. Thomas, Parson attended Antilles School, where he credits the band program as a key part of building his foundation as a musician. The son of United Jazz Foundation founder Nicole Parson and Emmy award-winning Virgin Islands musician Dion Parson, he also grew up around rehearsals, performances, and working musicians, absorbing the process as much as the sound.

“I’ve always been around jazz,” he said, including figures like Wynton Marsalis, who was involved in shaping parts of the tour and has long worked alongside his father. From there, the learning became more direct, with musicians offering guidance not just on technique, but on how to approach the instrument and the work.

“All the members of my dad’s band have been very supportive,” he said, pointing to players like trumpeter Melvin Jones and others who helped shape his development over time.

Even while studying at Interlochen, Parson has continued to return home and perform locally, building on that foundation while staying connected to the community that helped shape his early growth.

“Surround yourself with people that are better than you,” he said. “You learn more hearing them play … it helps you become better musically and personally.”

Now finishing his second year, Parson is focused on what comes next — more performances, more opportunities, and more time putting in the work.

“I’m just trying to put in as much time as possible,” he said, “and take advantage of every opportunity.”