March 21, 2007 — Sewage is being directed into open drainage guts in two St. Croix locations today while repair crews work to fix the two unrelated ruptures.
In Williams Delight, a Public Works road crew accidentally damaged a sewage gravity pipeline in the vicinity of the Good Shepherd School while using heavy machinery to clean a gut. Cleaning the gut is part of drainage improvements going on in the area. Sewage is flowing south into the gut adjacent to plot 1092 and to other properties within the area.
The Waste Management Authority is also continuing to repair a manhole vent chamber that was overflowing onto the dirt road leading to the Figtree Pump station by the Hovensa housing complex. The damaged vent is located on the Figtrees’ pump station force main, and in order to repair the vent, the Figtree Station is bypassing sewage into the west ditch adjacent to Hovensa.
WMA spokesperson Stella Saunders said that in both instances contractors are on the ground and working quickly.
“Now that it is excavated, we think it will take no more than about 3 days, 72 hours to finish up by Figtree,” said Saunders. Williams Delight should be done in the same time frame, said Saunders.
The Department of Planning and Natural Resources and the WMA are urging residents to stay away both these guts and avoid contact with any standing water in the vicinity for the time being.