March 5, 2002 – The years-long task of cleaning up between one and two million gallons of petroleum products fouling the aquifer under the St. Croix Alumina facility has begun.
The "oil plume," created between 1978 and 1991, was released from storage tanks and underground piping at St. Croix Alumina and the former Hess Oil of the Virgin Islands Corp., according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The oil seeped into the soil at both facilities and eventually reached the groundwater.
Jim Casey, the EPA V.I. coordinator, said recently that much of the oil is now floating on top of the groundwater in the Kingshill Aquifer, the largest under St. Croix, and some of it has dissolved into the water itself.
"The work has begun to remove the underground petroleum plume," Casey said. "This is just the beginning point of the process." He estimated that the initial effort to remove the floating oil will take three to five years.
The second stage of the cleanup will entail removing the dissolved oil and petroleum components now fouling the aquifer, Casey said.
Over the 13 years that the oil was released, several entities owned or operated the St. Croix Alumina and HOVIC facilities. In 1998, HOVIC entered into a joint venture with Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A., the South American nation's state-owned oil company, to form Hovensa.
Various companies led by Hovensa will pay for cleaning up the St. Croix Alumina oil plume. The others are HOVIC and the present and former operators of the alumina plant: St. Croix Alumina LLC, a subsidiary of ALCOA World Alumina, the current owner; Lockheed Martin Corp.; Virgin Islands Alumina Co.; and Century Aluminum Co.
A half dozen wells are being used to extract 180 or so 42-gallon barrelfuls of tainted water a day from beneath the St. Croix Alumina site. That water is being pumped to Hovensa’s wastewater treatment plant. The oil product, which is mostly diesel, is being separated from the water and recycled. The recovered groundwater will be discharged into the sea through Hovensa’s EPA-permitted outfall.
While the groundwater in the area flows in the general direction of the Caribbean Sea, environmental officials say the plume is stationary beneath St. Croix Alumina. They said the Barren Spot water well field, which is uphill from the plume, is not in danger of being contaminated.
