💧 Water and Power · U.S. Virgin Islands
WAPA said St. Croix water system met demand as storage levels rose
The Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority said on April 7, 2019, that St. Croix’s potable water system was meeting demand while adding about 200,000 gallons a day to storage after distribution problems in the island’s west end.
WAPA said five new pumps had been installed at three pumping stations in Contentment, Richmond and Concordia in the weeks after the service disruptions. The authority said overall storage capacity was about 37% and that the Kingshill tank had been rebuilt to about 23 feet of water, which it described as important to normal service in western St. Croix.
The authority said its storage level was equal to about two to three days of supply and was increasing daily. It also said water service was not affected during an electrical shutdown at the Concordia Pump Station on April 4, 2019, because water was supplied by gravity from storage tanks. The station returned to service on April 5, 2019.
WAPA said St. Croix had operated at about 87% production capacity in fiscal 2019 and at 83% during the water problems the previous month, which it said showed the issue was related to distribution rather than water production. It also said St. Thomas had operated at 68% production capacity in fiscal 2019.
The authority said it planned to use about $50 million in federal HUD recovery funds to develop a plan for restoration and renovation of the territory’s water system. It also said St. Croix was slated for two federally funded pipe replacement projects: the Christiansted Waterline Rehabilitation Project Phase 2, scheduled for May 2019 through April 2020, and the Frederiksted Waterline Rehabilitation Project Phase 2, scheduled for November 2019 through July 2020.