Two pumps are now online at the Figtree Pump Station on St. Croix’s south shore, the V.I. Waste Management Authority said Monday, apparently meeting the deadline set by federal court order issued last week.
Pumps at Figtree failed in January, and several stop-gap repairs did not hold up long, forcing WMA to bypass the station and let a portion of St. Croix sewage flow into the ocean at Long Reef and Cane Garden Bay.
When working normally, the Figtree pumping station should receive about 400,000 gallons of sewage from mid-island communities and about 1.3 million gallons from the LBJ pump station before it feeds it to the Anguilla plant for treatment.
But a portion of that flow has been going untreated into the ocean due to the recent pump failures. After the initial failure in January, WMA was able to do some repairs, and the flow through the station resumed. But then the station’s last pump broke down, forcing WMA to bypass Figtree into a nearby gut, which sent the entire load into Cane Garden Bay. WMA again managed a temporary fix, which failed just over a week ago.
Last Wednesday, hours after WMA got one pump up and running and ceased ocean dumping, federal District Court Chief Judge Curtis Gomez ordered WMA to comply with a federal order brought through the Environmental Protection Agency to fix the pumps and stop bypassing the treatment plant.
The EPA order calls for immediate repairs to the Figtree and LBJ sewage pump stations on St. Croix and repairs to all 75 of its damaged or inoperable pumps territory-wide over the next 45 days.
Gomez also required WMA to have a second $80,000 house pump installed at Figtree by March 23, comply with mandated public notices regarding health dangers from sewage spills, and have all three diesel backup pumps repaired on St. Croix by March 26.
According to Monday’s WMA announcement, the second pump was installed and back online at Figtree Friday afternoon, well in advance of the March 23 deadline.