ST. CROIX — The Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority plans to keep up with the routine trimming of trees near power lines by utilizing grant funding to purchase mulchers and offer training in addition to launching a year-round maintenance program, according to WAPA’s spokesperson.
After the passage of Tropical Storm Ernesto on August 13, WAPA’s ability to fully restore electricity to every customer was impacted by overgrown trees that knocked down power lines. WAPA announced on August 21 that 99% of the power territory wide had been restored, but that line crews were actively addressing dense vegetation in addition to repairing power lines and replacing transformers to restore service to customers affected by isolated outages.
Karl Knight, WAPA chief executive officer, discussed the restoration roadblocks during a meeting of the Virgin Islands Public Services Commission on August 27 as well as during the Authority’s board meeting on August 22.
“Our most significant point of failure was the lack of adequate preventative vegetation management prior to the storm,” he told the PSC members. “The event also found us with what I consider to be a shortage of manpower in the Line Department, particularly in the district of St. Thomas.”
Knight stressed the need to have dedicated tree trimming as part of WAPA’s Transmission and Distribution Department during the WAPA board meeting, adding that recruiting linemen and providing training are among his priorities. He weighed the possibility of hiring a contractor to assist WAPA’s personnel with tree trimming, especially leading up to hurricane season.
“We have to really think about how we do this, but I think we hurt ourselves a lot by not being able to keep up with the vegetation,” Knight said, questioning how quickly the restoration would have been if linemen didn’t have to spend as much time cutting back trees as they did.
In some cases, Knight said WAPA took the opportunity to cut back trees.
“So, we didn’t just trim trees,” he said. “In some instances, we actually pushed back the tree line.”
WAPA received support to remove trees near power lines from contractors as well as the Virgin Islands Department of Public Works, Shanell Petersen, WAPA director of Corporate Communications, said. She said WAPA is now looking at using grant funding to conduct vegetation maintenance on a regular basis.
“One of the lessons learned is clearly there’s been much of a need, and we’ve seen the impact when we haven’t been able to maintain the vegetation, especially considering that we have had a lot more rain in the last year than normal,” she said.
Petersen said vegetation management does occur, but not at the volume that it needs to occur. She said WAPA does not have any contracts with any company that provide tree-trimming services. She said, however, WAPA is utilizing grant funding to increase its ability to conduct tree trimming near power lines.
“Recently we received a grant from Department of Interior that allowed us to purchase additional equipment, including mulchers that will allow us to routinely conduct this type of activity,” Petersen said. “And then we’re also securing an additional five-year grant that is going to enable us to have this as an all-year-round maintenance project.”
WAPA utilized the $220,000 DOI grant to purchase four mulchers, which will assist with tree trimming by grinding the vegetation into smaller pieces.
“Those pieces can then be left on the ground as mulch or collected for disposal,” Petersen said, adding that WAPA linemen must complete training covered by the grant funding before using the mulchers.
Mulching tree limbs and leaving the pieces on the ground prevents vegetation from entering the landfills too.
“One of the things that we’ve noted from the mulchers is that it offers an environmentally-friendly approach to vegetation management, so that reduces the use of chemical herbicides or even resorting to intensive labor methods, because with the vegetation being shredded to mulch, it can be left on site or used for composting,” Petersen said.
In addition to purchasing mulchers and providing training on how to properly use the machines, WAPA is working to secure a five-year grant that will allow for year-round tree trimming.
“One of the things that is still being considered is whether we’re going to outsource that project to a third party, or if we’re going to identify designated team members to actually do that routine vegetation,” Petersen said.
Considering WAPA is understaffed when it comes to linemen in the St. Thomas/St. John District, Petersen said receiving the grant would allow the Authority to hire new personnel in addition to providing training.
As part of its training, Petersen said WAPA will be offering a course in partnership with the University of the Virgin Islands for supervisors and line workers territory wide.
“We’re anticipating that’s going to kick off within the next 60 days for both the refresher for some of our more tenured linemen, and then also as a first-time course on the appropriate and proper ways of tree trimming,” she said.
Knight discussed the need for WAPA to hire more linemen during the August 22 board meeting. He said he would like to hire young people and bring them into the profession.
“I really think we can do better with the recruiting, so I’ll be huddling with the team as part of the after action to let folks know we’re looking for a few good men and women to join our Line Department,” he said.
Petersen encouraged jobseekers interested in joining WAPA’s apprenticeship program as line workers to reach out to WAPA’s Human Resources Department.
“We’re always hiring linemen, especially through the apprenticeship program,” she said.
