Water storage in the V.I. Water and Power Authority’s St. Croix system was at critically low levels Sunday morning as a result of Saturday’s power outage that blacked out the entire island.
The island-wide service interruption caused the switch gear for WAPA’s Estate Richmond pump station to fail, the authority reported Sunday morning. WAPA has been unable to place any other pump station online until the Richmond pump station is energized, causing water storage to reach "critical levels."
As of late morning Sunday, water customers north of Estate Richmond to Morning Star hill were not receiving potable water.
Until the Richmond pump station can come back online customers from Christiansted to Frederiksted will experience low water pressure, as tank levels continue to fall. Crews were repairing the main pump station and anticipated its return to full service later Sunday.
In its news release, the authority apologized for the inconvenience and said every effort was being made to restore water service to normal as quickly as possible.