ST. CROIX — The Henry E. Rohlsen Airport is overrun with flies outdoor and indoor, and the luggage belt at the departure gate that has had repeated breakdowns for months is out of service again.
Travelers and airport employees alike are experiencing an influx of flies at the airport, creating an annoyance as they buzz around people and land on their bodies whether they are outside checking in for flights or at baggage claim, or inside waiting at their gate to depart.
“It’s very bad and bringing disease,” Sankerdaiy Moonessar, a traveler who was departing to return to her home in New York, said today about the flies. “They have to do some spraying.”
The swarm of flies also affected airport employees.
“This is not good for me,” Deborah Alfred, station manager with the commuter airline Sea Flight, said today as she used an electric bug zapper to kill flies while operating the check-in counter. “You can’t do anything here at all. It’s just flies everywhere.”
Alfred said flies have been a problem at the airport for about a month, adding that the Virgin Islands Port Authority has not done anything to eradicate them.
“Nothing has been done, and this is not good for us,” Alfred said, suggesting VIPA could set up large fans to blow the flies away. “This is not safe for working environment.”
Bill Rawlins, VIPA assistant executive director, was on the ground at the airport today. He noted ongoing efforts to empty the outdoor garbage receptacles as frequently as possible.
There were also flies inside the main building of the airport, congregating on the black seats in the lobby area. Flies have also infiltrated the indoor departure area where passengers wait to board their flights. They have even entered airplanes along with the passengers.
Rawlins suggested having the Port Authority’s cleaning staff wipe down the seats with disinfectant to deter the flies.
“We’ll have our housekeeping team pay special attention to the flies inside the terminal and make sure we’re addressing that throughout the day,” he said from outside the terminal while swatting at flies.
In addition to being armed with her electric bug zapper, Alfred brought her own cleaning supplies to work so she could sanitize her counter area to keep the flies away. She said, however, cleaning the area did not prevent the flies from coming.
“I don’t know what anybody could do about them,” she said.
The origin of the flies is up for debate.
While VIPA maintains that the flies traveled with the wind from the nearby landfill, the VI Waste Management Authority disagrees with that theory.
Monifa Marrero Brathwaite, VIPA spokesperson, wrote in a text message to WTJX that the flies were traveling to the airport with the southern winds from the nearby Anguilla Landfill.
“When the winds change, it may alleviate the problem,” she wrote.
Carlton Dowe, VIPA executive director, said he spoke with WMA personnel who confirmed the flies originated from the landfill.
“We spoke to Waste Management, and we were discussing whether they needed to put any more covering on the landfill,” he said. “We asked that they find some solution in terms of whether they have to spray, but it’s coming from the landfill.”
Roger Merritt Jr., WMA executive director, disagreed that the flies were traveling to the airport from the landfill.
“The distance between the airport and the landfill is great enough to where neither one of us are impacting the other, so flies in the landfill would not impact the airport and vice versa,” he said. “So, that is not an issue.”
Dowe, after learning that Merritt disagreed that the flies originated from the landfill, maintained that the landfill had to be the source.
“Where else is it going to come from?” he asked, noting the wind conditions.
Merritt, who noted that he didn’t personally speak to Dowe, said if there was a correlation between the landfill and the flies at the airport, it would happen every day. Otherwise, he said there would have to be something special happening at the landfill such as a food source to attract flies.
“Nothing has changed with our operations,” he said. “If there was an issue and they thought it was the landfill, they would have contacted me directly, and I have not received a call from anyone. I’m somewhat taken aback by the fact that the director for Port Authority would say that it’s the landfill and not having spoken to me.”
Merritt said if there were flies at the landfill, they would stay at the landfill with the garbage. He said WMA has a Wildlife Mitigation Plan it has been working on with the U.S. Department of Agriculture relative to charting bird migration patterns. He said data has been collected showing the landfill’s operations are not impacting the airport when it comes to bird migration. He said WMA would react similarly if flies were traveling to the airport from the landfill.
“If there were something that we were doing that would be impacting the airport, we would change our operations,” he said.
Alfred, the Sea Flight station manager, said she doesn’t think the wind is blowing the flies from the landfill, pointing out an issue with flies at the airport last year.
“If it’s the shift in wind, the wind shifts all year round, so why is it just one season that we get the flies?” she asked. “The wind is there everyday; it shifts everyday.”
A couple airport employees and one regular traveler agreed it is common to have an influx of flies at the airport during the summer. One of the employees referred to it as “fly season.”
Shaliya Barnes, an American Airlines ramp agent, said the influx of flies wasn’t new to her.
“They’re always here in the summertime,” she said. “They mostly come out during summer.”
While travelers and airport employees are now experiencing an influx of flies at the airport, a broken luggage belt at the departure area that was previously fixed is out of service again.
The broken luggage belt forces passengers to bring their checked luggage with them through U.S. Customs and Border Protection security screening before dropping it off ahead of the Transportation Security Administration checkpoint to be placed on the airplane. Airport personnel assisted some travelers with transporting their luggage today.
The luggage belt at the departure gate has been an ongoing repair project for the Port Authority. The belt, which is more than 25 years old, is constantly breaking down and getting repaired.
“Our internal folks did as much as they can do,” Dowe said, adding that they got it started a couple times, but it still broke down.
The Port Authority experienced a broken belt back in March.
Now that the belt is broken down again, Dowe said VIPA has contacted a technician in Miami it has worked with in the past for assistance in repairing it.
“We have a technician that we’ve contacted out of Miami who has worked on it before, so that’s what we’re trying to do,” he said, apologizing for the inconvenience. “These systems have been in place for a very, very long time, and the wear and tear, and they continue to give us problems.”
