Hovensa will take the lead of six companies in cleaning up about 1 million to more than 2 million gallons of petroleum products fouling the aquifer under the St. Croix Alumina facility.
The oil plume, created between 1978 and 1991, was released from storage tanks and underground piping at both St. Croix Alumina and the former Hess Oil of the Virgin Islands Corp., according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The oil seeped into the soil at both facilities and eventually reached the groundwater.
EPA officials say that much of the oil is now floating on top of the groundwater in the Kingshill Aquifer, the largest under St. Croix, although some of it has dissolved into the water itself.
Over the 13-year period during which the release of oil occurred, several entities owned or operated the current St. Croix Alumina and HOVIC facilities. In 1998, HOVIC entered into a joint venture with Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A., that country’s state-owned oil company, to form Hovensa.
Seven companies, led by Hovensa, will now pay for cleaning up the St. Croix Alumina oil plume. They include the present and former operators of the aluminum plant: St. Croix Alumina, L.L.C., a subsidiary of ALCOA World Alumina, the current owner; Lockheed Martin Corporation, Virgin Islands Alumina Company, Century Aluminum Company, and the past and present owners of the oil refinery, HOVIC and Hovensa, respectively.
Hovensa’s Steve Freeman, the project coordinator for the group of companies, said the cleanup will take four to five years with an as yet undetermined price tag.
"There is no way to know until we can get down that road," Freeman said.
Once the EPA has closed its public comment period for the proposed clean-up plan, efforts to begin pumping the affected water out of the ground will begin, probably some time well after mid-February, said the EPA’s Tim Gordon.
Once the cleanup is actually underway, Freeman said the six wells will be used to extract about 180, 42-gallon barrels of tainted water a day. That water will be pumped to Hovensa’s wastewater treatment plant. The oil product, which is mostly diesel, will be separated from the water and recycled. The recovered groundwater will be discharged into the sea through Hovensa’s EPA-permitted outfall.
While the groundwater in the area flows in the general direction of the Caribbean Sea, Gordon said the plume is stationary beneath St. Croix Alumina. He also said the Barren Spot water well field, which is uphill from the plume, is not in danger of being contaminated.
"The groundwater will not go from a lower gradient to a higher gradient," Gordon said. "There doesn’t seem to be an impact on the Barren Spot field."
Still, Amelia Joseph, Sen. Alicia Hansen’s legal counsel, registered her concern about the proximity of the plume to the well field.
"There are going to be instances when we will go to the Barren Spot well for our drinking water," she said. "The community is quite concerned about what is happening with our groundwater. We are quite concerned."
Gordon, however, noted that the Barren Spot well field hasn’t been used for some time. He also said the area of the Kingshill aquifer affected by the plume is too brackish to be used as drinking water.
"EPA firmly believes this (cleanup) order is fully protective of human health and the environment," Gordon said, adding that the plume "hasn’t threatened the Barren Spot field in the past."
The public may read the proposed clean-up order at the Department of Planning and Natural Resource’s Division of Environmental Protection in Water Gut Homes or the EPA's office in the Federal Building on St. Thomas.
Written comments on the proposed order can also be submitted by mail, with a postmark no later than Jan. 31, 2001, or by fax to Raymond Basso,Chief, RCRA Programs Branch U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 2,290 Broadway, 22nd Floor,New York, NY 10007-1866. Phone (212)637-4105; fax (212) 637-4437.
Once EPA has evaluated all of the comments received, it will make a final decision about whether to sign and finalize the proposed clean-up order.