A broken sewer pipe Monday has forced the closure of Fort Frederik Beach in Frederiksted, just weeks after another discharge killed thousands of fish.
According to the Department of Planning and Natural Resources, a sewer line near Estate La Grange broke. Personnel from the Division of Environmental Protection collected water samples at the beach just north of the cruise ship pier and then subsequently closed it to the public.
Harold Thompson, commissioner of the Department of Public Works, said contractors had been secured to repair the broken sewer. He didn’t, however, say how long the beach would be closed.
The Carnival Cruise Lines ship the Destiny is scheduled to make its biweekly call to Frederiksted Wednesday morning.
Monday’s west end sewage problem follows another approximately two weeks ago that killed more than 1,100 fish in the canal that runs near the Legislature building at Lagoon Street to the ocean at Fort Frederik Beach.
The fish kill occurred when the Lagoon Street pump station failed and sent sewage into the canal, according to an enforcement officer with DEP. The pollution depleted oxygen and killed some 1,100 tilapia, snook, mullet and crayfish, he said.