Pledge for Prospective Senators
Dear Editor, VI DailyNews,
I hope that all is well with you. GreenerVI.org is now 4,966 strong, with new people signing up every day. I sent you a copy of my letter to the head of NOAA, and it would be great if you could possibly get it into the paper tomorrow, because it affects every Virgin Islander and every business and endangered species here.
We are going around to prospective Senators today, as they campaign, and we are asking them to sign this simple pledge:
We, the prospective Senators of the 30th VI Legislature pledge to uphold the law and demand immediate transparency in VIWMA and WAPA studies, reports, salaries and all documents which legally should be made available to the public and our news agencies. We pledge to make VIWMA stop dumping raw, untreated sewage into our coastal waters and make WAPA more energy efficient, lowering our costs. We pledge to work together, now, with federal agencies and GreenerVI.org, (which has 4,966 citizens), to protect the environment in which we live.
Dated: November 6, 2012
Signed:
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EPA is Stonewalling Release of Raw Sewage Dumping Amounts
From: Susan Wolterbeek [mailto:susan@greenervi.org]
Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2011 11:28 AM
To: ‘Calderon, Wanda’
Cc: ‘Bellow.Bonnie@epamail.epa.gov’; ‘enck.judith@epamail.epa.gov’
Subject: Please follow federal law and honor my FIOA request of 3-28-11
Importance: High
Dear Ms. Calderon:
I am writing to follow-up, again, on my FOIA request of March 28, 2011, due on or before April 18, 2011. I still have not received the information requested, namely:
“all wastewater discharges in the USVI since January 1, 2010, including when the discharges commenced, when they stopped, and the quantities involved.”
Pursuant to 5 United States Code 552(a)(4)(F):
(i) Whenever the court orders the production of any agency records improperly withheld from the complainant and assesses against the United States reasonable attorney fees and other litigation costs, and the court additionally issues a written finding that the circumstances surrounding the withholding raise questions whether agency personnel acted arbitrarily or capriciously with respect to the withholding, the Special Counsel shall promptly initiate a proceeding to determine whether disciplinary action is warranted against the officer or employee who was primarily responsible for the withholding. The Special Counsel, after investigation and consideration of the evidence submitted, shall submit his findings and recommendations to the administrative authority of the agency concerned and shall send copies of the findings and recommendations to the officer or employee or his representative. The administrative authority shall take the corrective action that the Special Counsel recommends.
Please supply this information immediately. You are already 3 days late, you have stopped even acknowledging my requests, and you yourself are now complicit in postponing my filings in federal district court by continuing to withhold this data which is public information. I look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, Susan K. Wolterbeek
Is Anyone Home at the EPA?
Please read the two letters to EPA Region 2 Administrator Enck in our Current Crises Page; it is well worth reading. These two letters are still unanswered since May last year!!!
From: Susan Wolterbeek [mailto:susan@greenervi.org]
Sent: Tuesday, April 12, 2011 12:02 AM
To: ‘Bellow.Bonnie@epamail.epa.gov’
Cc: ‘enck.judith@epamail.epa.gov’
Subject: When will I be receiving the Promised reply to letters dated 5/17/10 and 3/2/11?
Dear Bonnie:
When we spoke several weeks ago, you assured me that I would soon be receiving a response to my letters to the Regional Administrator of last May 17, 2010 and March 2, 2011. Will you now please make this a priority?
Your agency refuses to file for contempt or even alert the Court that VIWMA pumped a further 69+ days of raw sewage into our coastal waters. If the rate was again pumped out at 1.2 million gallons per day, the polluting surpassed last year’s total. The EPA in its new filing has grossly misstated the facts to the Court, and did not even mention to the Court that VIWMA is not giving required warnings to the public. I look forward to receiving the Promised response to my letter to Judith Enck. Sincerely, Susan
EPA Misleads the Court on Severity of Sewage Dumping
From: Susan Wolterbeek [mailto:susan@greenervi.org]
Sent: Monday, April 11, 2011 11:18 PM
To: ‘Gonzalez.EduardoJ@epamail.epa.gov’
Cc: ‘Feinmark.Phyllis@epamail.epa.gov’; ‘SueParten@aol.com’; ‘donald.frankel@usdoj.gov’; ‘Joycelyn.Hewlett@usdoj.gov’; ‘dave@greenervi.org’; ‘enck.judith@epamail.epa.gov’; ‘Bellow.Bonnie@epamail.epa.gov’
Subject: Corrected data- 69 days of bypasses
Dear Eduardo:
I wanted to give you a quick heads up, because your are significantly misstating facts to Judge Gomez. As you can see by the summary I sent you on March 30, 2011, as well as the above communication by VIWMA, Barren Spot was bypassing from March 13, 2011 through March 23, 2011. There were other bypasses by Barren Spot as well:
6/13/2010 Barren Spot PS Pump Coupling Sheared 1 Day 4 Hours
6/28/2010 Barren Spot PS Pump vent line Plugged 1 Hour 15 min.
8/19/2010 Barren Spot PS Pump lost its prime 1 Hour 45 min.
8/21/2010 Barren Spot PS Couplings were destroyed 15 Hours 30 min.
8/24/2010 Barren Spot PS Couplings were off balanced 2 Hours
8/30/2010 Barren Spot House Pump Failed 1 Hour 45 min.
9/1/2010-9/3/2010 Barren Spot Broken 8” sewer force main 2 Days 5 Hours
9/5/2010-9/7/2010 Barren Spot House Pump Failed 2 Days 9 Hours 30 min.
9/8/2010 Barren Spot PS House Pump Failed 12 Hours
12/2/2010-12/3/2010 Barren Spot ditch line for diesel pump separated 1 Day 3 Hours 15 min.
2/23/2011 Barren Spot PS busted discharge hose 3 Hours 15 min.
3/13/2011-3/23/2011 Barren Spot PS/submersible pump elec. failure 10 Days 7 Hours 15 min.
Total For Barren Spot: 18 days 18 hours 30 min.
Other major bypasses which you did not mention at all were:
4/23/2010-5/3/2010 Broken Force Main LBJ (Figtree had LBJ’s pump) 10 Days
9/8/2010-9/11/2010 LBJ Broken Force Main 2 Days 18 Hours 30 min.
12/18/2010 Lagoon Street PS house pump failed-sewage overflow 3 days 22 hours
1/4/2011 Weymouth Rhymer PS Force Main Break Ongoing
1/9/2011-1/14/2011 Humbug II PS Obstructed Force Main 5 Days 3 ½ Hours
1/27/2011-2/9/2011 LBJ new force main “10 days 11.5 hrs” (actually 13 Days 11.5 Hours)
2/24/2011-3/2/2011 Force main adj to Hovensa Broken Force Main 6 Days 6 Hours
2/24/2011-3/2/2011 Fig Tree PS Broken Force Main 5 Days 22 hours
3/21/2011-3/24/2011 NaNa Gut PS Pump impeller 3 Days 6 Hours
Total for other pump stations: 50 Days 17.5 hours plus Weymouth Rhymer
These 69+ Days of pumping raw sewage into our coastal waters are just the ones that I know about, given the incomplete records, and not including the Hurricane Earl mass outages. There may be many more bypasses, but these are the ones I told you about in my summary from the Non-Compliance Reports I received from Jim Casey. I am hoping to soon receive the more comprehensive information from Mr. Modesto and Mr. Font.
Therefore, you may want to correct your statement to the Court. It appears that VIWMA may have pumped out more raw sewage over our reefs this year than they did last year. Your continued refusal to enforce the statute and move for contempt is inexplicable. Sincerely, Susan
VIWMA Dumping Sewage Report are Non-Compliant
Dear Mr. Modesto and Mr. Font:
Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act I have previously requested, of the EPA:
“all wastewater discharges in the USVI since January 1, 2010,
including when the discharges commenced, when they stopped,
and the quantities involved.”
As you know, Part II of the TPDES Permit Section B General Conditions 18. Availability of Information states that this information shall be made available to the public without further notice. Mr. Casey agreed that this is public information and provided me with the attached Non-Compliance Reports, which themselves are unfortunately woefully incomplete. Some reports simply say “Ongoing” in regard to bypasses during a period of days or weeks when VIWMA has been actively pumping millions of gallons of raw sewage into our coastal waters. There are no stop dates or quantities listed. I am attaching a summary of these discharges, as reported in the Non-Compliance Reports. Please inform me as to the name and title of the people at DPNR and the EPA who have the responsibility of reviewing these documents for compliance with the mandates of federal law, court orders and the TPDES permits.
There were newspaper articles and press releases printed in the VI Newspapers which also indicate further bypasses, for which there are not any Non-Compliance Reports at all. One example of this is the bypass which occurred on St. Croix April 24-May 3, 2010, as reflected in the attached article.
Therefore, the information requested has not been fully furnished to me. I understand that you would be the people who would have the specific information requested, including where the bypass occurred and why, start dates, stop dates, and the quantity of flow. Would you please provide this previously requested information, in full, immediately, or as soon as possible, as I will be filing documents with the Federal District Court, this week, and I am endeavoring to be as accurate as possible with the data supplied to the Court. I appreciate your supplying this information, because the court would want it to be supplied now that it is considering the current condition of the wastewater systems, and whether VIWMA has been compliant with previous court orders. Perhaps your counsel has already requested this information.
In addition, please specify the name and title of the people responsible for confirming that every time there is a bypass exceeding 8 hours, that public notice is given according to the TPDES Permit and the Federal Court Order. I understand that DPNR oversees VIWMA, but who at DPNR and who at the EPA are in charge of reviewing this compliance or lack thereof? Were you aware that VIWMA (and DPNR) have not been following this court order and important condition of the TPDES Permit?
Finally, will there be any communication from the EPA to the Triathletes, or from the EPA to the Health Department concerning the triathletes, who will soon be swimming in the affected waters? From a legal perspective, since the EPA is the regulatory agency, it is responsible to the people of the Virgin Islands for allowing VIWMA to continue pumping raw sewage over long reef. I believe it is the EPA’s obligation, at the very least, to give the Department of Health all the facts concerning the bypasses. Please let me know if you intend to do so. Thank you, in advance, for your prompt reply. Sincerely, Susan K. Wolterbeek
EPA is hiding the Raw Sewage Flow Quantities!
Ms. Calderon:
Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act I have previously requested, of the EPA:
“all wastewater discharges in the USVI since January 1, 2010,
including when the discharges commenced, when they stopped,
and the quantities involved.”
I have not received that information. I have received Non-Compliance Reports, which do not state the above information. There are no reports, or very limited information, when the very worst bypasses occurred. For example, the EPA proved to the federal district court that between January and March, 2010, VIWMA pumped over 50 million gallons of raw sewage into our coastal waters. Now look at the Non-Compliance reports for that 2 month period. These reports do not give the required start and stop dates, or the quantities involved. See, i.e. Barren Spot attachment. It is my understanding that given his prior testimony, Mr. Modesto has this information, and Mr. Font is above him.
VIWMA dumped again April 23-May3, 2010. There are no Non-Compliance Report for those dates. This January-March, 2011, again VIWMA has been pumping raw sewage into our coastal waters. I AM ASKING FOR THIS PREVIOUSLY REQUESTED DATA.
In addition, I am asking for the names and titles of the people in DPNR and EPA who supervise and/or regulate VIWMA. Who reviews VIWMA’s Non-Compliance Reports? Who ensures that VIWMA is following the requirements of the TPDES Permit? Who ensures that VIWMA and DPNR are in compliance with the current court orders in regard to having the necessary, maintained equipment, and giving the public notice when bypasses occur?
Please provide this information. Given the fact that Federal District Judge Gomez was outraged that VIWMA pumped 50 million gallons of raw sewage over our reefs last year, he will want to know the quantity of raw sewage that VIWMA dumped over our reefs this year, and who is responsible. I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible. Sincerely, Susan K. Wolterbeek
NOAA Notified of Illegal, Continuing Dumping of Raw Sewage
From: Thomas Bigford [mailto:Thomas.Bigford@noaa.gov]
Sent: Friday, April 30, 2010 4:04 PM
To: Susan Wolterbeek
Subject: Re: VIWMA dumping 72 million gallons or raw sewage over Long Reef, St. Croix
Thanks for your phone call and message, Susan. I have relayed the information to others and will follow up with them later today and Monday. I’ll get back to you asap.
Susan Wolterbeek wrote:
April 30, 2010
Mr. Thomas Bigford, Habitat Division (F/HC2)
National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA
1315 East-West Highway, Rm 15317
Silver Spring, MD 20910
Dear Mr. Bigford:
I have been doing the preliminary research on various federal laws and approaches to the problem, and I think the best solution would be to file an amicus brief with the Federal District Court, in conjunction with NOAA, FWS, the Nature Conservancy and the Center for Biological Diversity, and in support of the EPA. Here are the basic facts:
There is a longstanding EPA consent decree based upon prior violations by VIWMA. VIWMA does not abide by the consent decree. VIWMA does not even do the minimum required publishing and reporting every day the fact that it is daily dumping 1.2 million gallons of raw sewage and people should stay out of the coastal waters, and fishermen should not catch fish there. This in itself is a gross negligence for failing to perform the most rudimentary of health care measures. Further, we have a large tourist population during the height of season, and they should have been warned as well as the Virgin Islanders.
Also, this discharge of 72 Million Gallons of raw sewage was dumped near protected wildlife refuges, and in coastal waters which is the home to staghorn and elkhorn coral and their habitat, all protected by the ESA as well as protected turtles, fish, and other species.
VIWMA is fiscally irresponsible, not collecting septage and other basic fees, not keeping all federally mandated records or even issuing an annual report for the past 4 years.
VIWMA has not maintained its equipment, or had a reasonable back-up system, resulting in VIWMA dumping 72 million gallons of raw sewage over Long Reef, St. Croix, over a two month period. VIWMA was told by the EPA to stop dumping but did not do so until it received a Court Order.
Federal District Court Judge Gomez issued specific orders on March 18, 2010. VIWMA then violated those orders as reported in a newspaper article.
Then, VIWMA again dumped raw sewage on April 27, 2010.
Clearly, VIWMA has no interest or intention of following court orders. We cannot wait for VIWMA to dump any more raw sewage.
The Federal District Court has the ability to take extraordinary measures on behalf of the people of the Virgin Islands for human health reasons, for criminal taking of Endangered Species, for wholescale mismanagement of the VIWMA. The Federal District Court may order the EPA to take over management of the VIWMA.
That needs to occur now. If the EPA takes over management of VIWMA, it can stop dumping, buy necessary equipment, say no to Alpine, and focus on a comprehensive waste management plan.
My rough research shows the following:
It is entirely appropriate to file an Amicus Brief , particularly when VIWMA has just violated Federal District Court Orders.
The ESA affects regulation under the Clean Water Act. In early 1999 EPA, FWS, and NMFS published a draft Memorandum of Agreement regarding enhanced coordination under the Clean Water Act and the ESA. 64 Fed. Reg. 2741-57 (January 15, 1999). Moreover, EPA has been negotiating agreements with states that issue NPDES, thus it is also appropriate and helpful to the District Court Judge to get NOAA, FWS, The Nature Conservancy and the Center for Biological Diversity’s point of view on all of this, while the case is currently before the Court.
ESA § 9 makes it unlawful for anyone to “take” a listed animal, and this includes significantly modifying its habitat.
Public Law 100-478, enacted October 7, 1988, (102 Stat 2306) included the following provisions:
- Redefines the definition of “person” to clarify law applies to municipal corporations.
Thus, NOAA and the U.S. Attorney’s Office may chose to prosecute the Senior Staff, Board of Directors, and perhaps other agency personnel for thousands of criminal violations of the ESA. All of this could have been avoided, and now so much of our coral, wildlife preserves and ecosystem in general is at risk. Given what is going on with the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, and how that may devastate the Florida coral populations, that makes this case all the more unconscionable, since it should never have happened.
Pursuant to ESA Chapter 7, “Each federal agency shall . . . ensure that any action authorized, funded, or carried out by such agency . . . is not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of any endangered species or threatened species or result in the destruction or adverse modification of habitat of such species.” The only way the EPA can ensure this is if it takes over VIWMA.
Do you think NOAA/NMFS would submit an Amicus Brief, either jointly with or separately from the aforementioned agencies? The Center for Biological Diversity is very interested, but they don’t have the manpower to prepare the Amicus Brief. I have been communicating with Peter Galvin, Chief, International Division, telephone: 707.986.2600 email: ‘PGalvin@biologicaldiversity.org‘
In regard to the Nature Conservancy, since they have 3 project areas of recolonization of Staghorn and Elkhorn Coral around St. Croix and 1 in St. Thomas, (through a NOAA grant) they may have all the data you need to make your criminal as well as civil action successful. The contact person there is:
Kemit-Amon Lewis, Coral Conservation Manager for The Nature Conservancy at (340) 718-5575 or via email klewis@tnc.org.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely yours,
Susan K. Wolterbeek
US Attorney Notified About Continuing, Illegal Dumping of Raw Sewage
Although We Wrote to the US Attorney About Contempt of Court Orders, We Heard Nothing Further
Response email from the US Attorney
From: Hewlett, Joycelyn (USAVI) [mailto:Joycelyn.Hewlett@usdoj.gov]
Sent: Thursday, April 29, 2010 12:45 PM
To: Susan Wolterbeek
Cc: Enck.Judith@epamail.epa.gov; miyoko sakashita; Frankel, Donald (ENRD)
Subject: RE: Recent dumping of 72 million gallons of raw sewage over Long Reef
Dear Ms. Wolterbeek:
Thank you for your telephone call and e-mail. I have copied Attorney Donald Frankel, the lead attorney on this case. He has been following the developments in this case and will respond accordingly.
Original Notification Letter to US Attorney, Asking Them to Enforce Court Orders and the Endangered Species Act
Joycelyn Hewlett
Civil Chief/ FLU Supervisory Attorney
United States Attorney’s Office
United States Courthouse & Federal Building
5500 Veteran’s Drive, Suite 260
St. Thomas, Virgin Islands 00802-6424
Re: Recent dumping of 72 million gallons of raw sewage over Long Reef
Dear Attorney Hewlett:
I am a stateside attorney and former NYC Assistant District Attorney, and am writing in regard to VIWMA’s dumping 72 million gallons of raw sewage over Long Reef from January 17th through mid-March, 2010. The VI Daily News reported that Federal District Court Judge Gomez directed VIWMA to do the following:
– Ensure the one working pump at Figtree station remains operational.
– Install a second working pump at Figtree by Tuesday.
– Comply with the public notification requirements as detailed in the Territorial
Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit. According to the permit, the agency must notify the public by television, radio and newspaper each day a sewage bypass occurs.
– Ensure that St. Croix has two operational auxiliary diesel pumps for emergencies. The first must be obtained by Wednesday and the second by March 26.
– Certify that the Cancryn pump station on St. Thomas has a six-inch and a four-inch auxiliary diesel pump in working order as backup for the 10-inch pump currently in operation.
The federal government said in Thursday’s court filing that in addition to the problems at LBJ and Figtree, the Barren Spot pump station on St. Croix and the Cancryn pump station on St. Thomas also are in danger of failing as well.
One would think that VIWMA would be very scrupulously complying with the federal court order, purchasing and installing all the replacement and backup pumps according to the judge’s schedule. Also note that VIWMA was to certify that the Cancryn Pump Station, the main station of St. Thomas, is operational, with two back-up pumps. However, according to the VI Daily News article dated Friday, April 16, 2010:
“Because of the frequent failures, Waste Management is planning to buy a number of upgraded pumps to replace the downed pumped and a backup for each station on St. Croix.” …“St. Thomas’ Cancryn pump station – the island’s main station – has been without a working pump for close to nine months, Cornwall said. A contractor is diverting flow around Cancryn to another station while cleaning takes place. The station should be back up and running by the end of April, Cornwall said.”
These statements lead one to believe that the pumps have not been purchased yet, in direct violation of the District Court Order.
I wrote to Jim Casey, Virgin Islands Coordinator of EPA Region 2 on Monday, April 26, 2010 to suggest that the EPA may want to confirm that VIWMA has complied with the March District Court Order. Then, the next day, VIWMA again allowed raw sewage to flow into our coastal waters and the Caribbean Sea. It was emphatically stated that this new release of raw sewage was a pipe issue, not the pumps, but you may want to find out whether VIWMA bought and installed the pumps as specified in the court order, or just submitted a plan to do so.
Further, the March Court Order states that Cancryn pump station “is in danger of failing”, not that it has already failed, waste is currently diverted around Cancryn, and that station has been without a working pump for 9 months. According to the Order, VIWMA had to certify in March for Cancryn that there are 4 inch and 6 inch auxiliary backup pumps in addition to a working 10 inch operational pump. Yet, VIWMA stated in April that the Cancryn pump has not been working for 9 months, so how could they possibly make such a certification?
According to NOAA, “coral reefs buffer adjacent shorelines from wave action and prevent erosion, property damage and loss of life. Reefs also protect the highly productive wetlands along the coast, as well as ports and harbors and the economies they support. Healthy reefs contribute to local economies through tourism. Diving tours, fishing trips, hotels, restaurants, and other businesses based near reef systems provide millions of jobs and contribute billions of dollars all over the world. Recent studies show that millions of people visit coral reefs in the Florida Keys every year. These reefs alone are estimated to have an asset value of $7.6 billion (Johns et al., 2001).”
You may be aware of the enormous oil spill which is near Florida and appears to be headed for the Florida Keys, where NOAA and Coral experts have been protecting and recolonizing coral. If Florida’s coral dies from this massive oil spill, we must be all the more protective of the coral in the USVI.
There remains only 3 percent left of the coral of 30 years ago. Staghorn and Elkhorn Coral are currently protected by the Endangered Species Act, and the Center for Biological Diversity has filed a formal petition to protect 83 more imperiled coral species, seven of which are local to the U.S. Virgin Islands. These corals already face a growing threat of extinction due to rising ocean temperatures caused by global warming, and the related threat of ocean acidification. Now 72 million gallons of raw sewage has been dumped onto the reefs, then more on Tuesday. Steps must be taken to ensure there will be no more dumping, or the reefs will be gone.
Sincerely yours,
Susan K. Wolterbeek
cc: Judith Enck, EPA Administrator, Region 2
Miyoko Sakashita, Oceans Director, Center for Biological Diversity