Acting on U.S. government complaints that V.I. sewage pump stations need major work or else will continue to fail and spill sewage, U.S. District Court issued an order this week requiring the V.I. Waste Management Authority to take a series of measures reorganizing maintenance of the pump stations.

The issue came to the fore last year when the Figtree pump station went offline and sewage began being bypassed into Cane Garden Bay. Last March, the federal government sued to stop the bypass, and U.S. District Judge Curtis Gomez issued an order calling for immediate repairs to the Figtree and LBJ sewage 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, 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—all of which WMA has said it accomplished prior to the court’s deadlines.

But in a brief to the court following up on the Figtree pump station problems, attorney Donald Frankel, representing the U.S. government, itemized a long string of mechanical problems at pump stations across the territory. Frankel suggested the systems in place for maintenance were not effective or efficient enough and without major changes, more sewage system bypasses were likely.

"The situation at the pump stations …is still precarious and demonstrates the lack of timely attention to pump failures," Frankel wrote. Although WMA has ordered some new pumps, unless it "adequately maintains these new pumps (along with its older pumps) and repairs/replaces any pumps that fail in the future in an expeditious manner, its acquisition of new pumps will not improve the situation over the
long term," he continued.

Gomez’s order incorporates many of the government’s suggestions. It requires WMA to create a $150,000 "Raw Sewage Avoidance Fund" set aside to use solely for fast, emergency repairs.

WMA is also to file a report within 30 days describing the status of each of the roughly 75 pumps at its 30 or so pump stations, saying what pumps are working, which are not and what the repair plan is. After that, WMA is to file quarterly reports on the pumps until all are working properly.
The order gives WMA 90 days to ensure all the pump stations are operating at all times, with at least one backup pump available. It requires WMA to submit a detailed maintenance protocol within 30 days and to submit a plan saying how it will repair or replace any failed pumps within 21 days of learning of their failure.

Since power fluctuations may be one reason pumps fail so frequently, WMA is to audit its V.I. Water and Power Authority power at the pump stations, looking both at variations in power and at surge protection.

Within 120 days, every station is to have adequate surge protection, and each district needs to have enough spare parts, such as bearings, oil, grease, belts, filters and fuses.

Reached by phone Tuesday, WMA Executive Director May Adams Cornwall said she would have to look over the order and discuss it with legal counsel and WMA management before commenting on the new court order.