A litany of problems – including the prospect of a federal grand jury investigation – continue to plague the Department of Public Works’ territorial wastewater system as the agency heads into Senate committee hearings Wednesday and Thursday.
On St. Croix, problems that caused millions of gallons of raw sewage to flow into the sea over the past several years have been resolved, though broken sewer pipes are still spilling an undetermined amount of waste at three different locations.
On St. Thomas, Public Works is under federal court order to hire an outside contractor to operate its wastewater treatment plants, but has not complied, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials.
Many of the territory’s wastewater treatment problems predate 1984, when the local government signed a consent decree with Washington to repair its sewage system. The decree was amended in 1996. But illegal discharges continued unabated on St. Croix, and last year federal Judge Thomas Moore issued several orders to force Public Works to repair pump stations and the island’s mostly inoperable wastewater treatment plant.
Washington's frustration over the longtime delays appears to have culminated in a grand jury investigation, meaning that the 16-year-old civil action against the government could turn into a criminal case.
Local and federal government officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said a federal grand jury has subpoenaed records from Public Works and the Department of Planning and Natural Resource relating to the sewage system.
STILL SPILLING
On St. Croix, broken lines have been spewing an undetermined amount of sewage since late February and early March in the Bethlehem area near Territorial Court, in Castle Coakley adjacent to the Hovensa refinery and in the Castle Burke area, said Jim Casey, the EPA’s Virgin Islands coordinator.
The age of the sewage system combined with a lack of proper maintenance is a recipe for disaster, he said.
"The system is such an aged system that once you fix one place, it busts in another," Casey said. "But what has been budgeted for sewage is always far less than what is needed. The sheer age and the absence of a maintenance program only exacerbates the problem."
On St. Thomas, there continues to be a problem with staffing in the wastewater division, Casey said. Additionally, under the amended consent decree, Public Works must hire an independent contractor to operate its treatment plants for six consecutive months, because the department wasn’t able to met the minimum-discharge requirements set forth in the agreement.
But Casey said no operator is on duty at at least five of Public Works’ pocket wastewater treatment plants.
"The previous contractor is no longer on the job," he said. "I can’t tell you if there is a contractor actually overseeing the operation of those plants."
Acting Public Works Commission Wayne Callwood was off island Tuesday and couldn’t comment. A Public Works employee said he would not be present at the Committee on Government Operations and Planning and Natural Resources hearing Wednesday on St. Thomas, but that he would make it to the Thursday session on St. Croix.
GRAND DECISION
Because Public Works failed to meet many of the standards set in the 1996 amended consent decree, it was fined hundreds of thousands of dollars by the federal government, money that was put in trust to fund future wastewater projects, such as the new Cruz Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant on St. John.
The fines, however, do not end there. A settlement has been reached with the U.S. Department of Justice for violations in 1997, but discussions on 1998 and 1999 haven’t even been broached.
Theoretically, the consent decree will be lifted once its conditions are consistently met. But if Public Works’ past performance is any indication, that won’t happen any time soon. And that is the motivation for the grand jury probe, according to a source familiar with the issue.
The source, who wished to remain anonymous, said the grand jury must decide whether to initiate criminal proceedings against the government for violating the federal Clean Water Act rather than the civil remedy already in place under the consent decree.
"The grand jury can look into any allegation of criminal activity it wants to look into," said the source. "Technically, when (Public Works) dumps into the ocean, you must differentiate between criminal or not. What are the conditions?"
The decision, said the source, may come down to Public Works' repeated failure over the years to comply with the Clean Water Act and whether it involved willful intent to disregard the law.
The grand jury could also consider spending by the executive branch on nonessential programs, even as sewage discharges continued in violation of federal laws. In other words, the continued failure to provide Public Works with an adequate operating budget, particularly for the wastewater system, could sway the grand jury.
"That’s an essential and indispensable aspect of any wastewater management program," the EPA’s Casey said. "That seems to be a glaring, absent element."