Yes, Christi Miller, all the territory’s beaches are open for sunning, but testing at two beaches on St. Croix by the Planning and Natural Resources Department shows the water there is not yet safe for swimming.
Source reader Miller wrote that she will be visiting St. John next week and wanted to know if DPNR’s Environmental Protection Division was still advising the public to stay out of the coastal waters of St. John. Planning sent out an alert last week after runoff from four days of heavy rains fouled the territory’s waters.
“There’s been some some septic tank bypasses,” DPNR spokesman Jamal Nielsen said Friday.
The department regularly tests 43 beaches across the territory. Only Princess Beach at Condo Row, and Grapetree Bay, both on St. Croix, failed. Nielsen said he did not know what caused problems at those beaches.
Beaches on St. Thomas and St. John all passed Planning’s muster. Magens Bay on St. Thomas does its own testing, and office manager Pam Jurgen said the water is fine — come on in.
Since the most popular St. John beaches are in V.I. National Park, Miller will be glad to know that all the park’s beaches are safe for swimming, snorkeling and other marine pursuits.
Park Superintendent Mark Hardgrove said that since the area around the beaches is not developed like the rest of St. John, the issues are mainly pathogens from trees and plants.
“The organisms die off in a couple of hours from the salt water,” Hardgrove said.
According to Hardgrove, all the park’s roads are passable, but some areas were undermined by the rains and drivers need to be cautious.
“The North Shore Road has some undercuts and some areas that have fallen off,” Hardgrove said.
The park suffered about $200,000 worth of damage to its roads and other infrastructure due to last week’s passage of Tropical Storm Otto. Hardgrove said he hopes the Federal Emergency Management Agency will come through with funding to make emergency repairs.
Hikers may encounter some downed limbs on the park’s trails. While many of the trails have been cleaned up, Hardgrove said limbs continue to fall off trees. He said hikers could help by dragging downed limbs off the trails.
