The Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to file a motion in District Court to force the V.I. government to rectify the "terrible condition" of the wastewater treatment plants on St. Thomas.
Donald Frankel, a U.S. Department of Justice attorney working in conjunction with the EPA, said at a District Court hearing Tuesday on St. Croix that the Department of Public Works, which operates the government’s wastewater system, has racked up more than $630,000 in fines in April, May and June for violating discharge requirements at treatment plants on St. Thomas and St. Croix.
The discharges are in violation of the consent decree entered into between the local and federal governments more than 15 years ago to repair the territory’s ailing wastewater system.
In addition, Frankel said inspections by the EPA and the Department of Planning and Natural Resources in July and August indicated that the wastewater treatment plants on St. Thomas "are in terrible condition," particularly the Airport Lagoon plant.
The bulk of the fines for April, May and June are for some of the 11 treatment plants on St. Thomas. Only about $50,000 of the total amount of fines were for St. Croix’s lone wastewater treatment plant; it was inoperable for most of those three months.
"We are concerned," Frankel said. "There are major, major problems on St. Thomas."
He said the proposed motion would be similar to the one granted by District Court Judge Thomas Moore in February that ordered Public Works to adhere to a set of deadlines to repair the ailing wastewater system on St. Croix.
Public Works’ inability to manage its wastewater treatment plants at the primary level, which means removing solids from liquid before discharging into the ocean, doesn’t bode well because the EPA is considering making the territory treat its sewage at an even higher — and more expensive — level.
The EPA has tentatively denied the territory’s waiver of the U.S. Clean Water Act that requires the treatment of sewage at the secondary level. The waiver has been pending for some 15 years in the hope that Public Works would meet primary discharge standards. That, however, hasn’t occurred.
The EPA’s decision is due in October; if it denies the waiver, Public Works would have three years to develop a compliance plan detailing how it would attain secondary treatment.
"They’ll essentially have to do major, major renovations to treatment plants," Frankel said. "More expenditures would be required."
Secondary treatment uses chemical and biological methods to clean sewage before it is discharged outside a treatment plant. In the territory’s case, that means pumping treated sewage out to sea.
The cost of upgrading the territory’s wastewater treatment plants has been pegged around $20 million. Existing plants would have to be brought up to current standards, like the recently completed $4 million Cruz Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant on St. John.
"The only good thing that is happening is the new Cruz Bay treatment plant coming on line," Frankel said.