Incidents at an oil refinery in St. Croix have left nearby residents with contaminated drinking water in their cisterns:
HOVENSA oil refinery once again is offering residents of certain areas free water, this time after a processing unit failed early Thursday morning and heavy oil was burned — some of it potentially contaminating nearby cisterns.
As HOVENSA burned the heavy oil in its ground-flare system — an earthen dike to contain and burn the oil — a thick and dark plume of black smoke rose hundreds of feet into the air and carried oil droplets, which fell on some residential areas, HOVENSA said in a statement.
Estates Profit, Clifton Hill and Enfield Green all were affected by the oil precipitation, and HOVENSA advised residents there not to drink their cistern water.
The V.I. Department of Planning and Natural Resources told residents and businesses to disconnect their downspouts from their cisterns as a precaution.
…
HOVENSA incident commander Robert Campbell said the refinery continues to assess the surrounding area’s cisterns and advised residents to preserve water until the assessment is complete, which he said should happen sometime today.
Campbell said he was not sure how many cisterns had been tested or what the results were.
It was the second time HOVENSA has had to deploy assessment teams in as many weeks. Vacuum gas oil was sprayed into the air Sept. 19, and there are HOVENSA personnel still working to assess the cistern contamination in Estates Barren Spot, Ginger Thomas, Sunny Acres and Strawberry.
See the original article at the Virgin Islands Daily News for more.
Previously on Green Antilles: Environmental impacts of naphtha blaze in Bonaire.
[Photo: virginislandsdailynews.com]
