ST. CROIX — The owner of a boat tour and charter company that operates from the boardwalk in Christiansted is pursuing legal action to hold the Virgin Islands Waste Management Authority accountable for the ongoing flow of sewage into the harbor from a disconnected pipe that has created an unpleasant odor he attributes to a noticeable decline in business.
Matt Ridgway, a St. Croix native who has owned Caribbean Sea Adventures for the past nine years, said his company has been struggling since March when a nearby pipe located under the boardwalk became disconnected and started spewing sewage into the sea.
“My business and my employees are stuck in this stench for seven months now, and this is going to put us out of business,” he said.
The sewage is flowing into the harbor from a disconnected pipe located under the boardwalk by the northwest corner of King Christian Hotel. When the winds are blowing and the smell of sewage is not obvious, pieces of toilet paper can still be seen floating in the water.
The sewage spill has caused significant business losses for Caribbean Sea Adventures, leading to a 30% decline in revenue despite a 22% increase in air arrivals, according to Ridgway, who also serves as president of the Christiansted Retail & Restaurant Association.
“When we look at the same period from March to now versus last year, we’re down 30%, and in the same period, air arrivals are up 22%, so there’s really nothing else that we can point to that’s causing us to lose such a dramatic amount of business,” Ridgway said. “We should be having a great year. We’re having a terrible year. So, it’s very disheartening to know that in one step, Tourism is working so hard to get tourists here, which is great for my business, but then other agencies like Waste Management are having a negative effect that’s overwhelmingly negative.”
Nate Lanpheare, a Caribbean Sea Adventures crew member, said his customers have complained about the sewage smell.
“It’s impacting the way that the clients and customers look at our beautiful island because they come down here and they expect a tropical beauty, and when they walk up to our office, they get this horrible stench of sewage,” Lanpheare said, adding that toilet paper floating along the boardwalk is unsightly. “When you have to sit here for half an hour, 45 minutes waiting to board one of our vessels in order to get away from it, it would make me not want to come back either.”
Sam Halvorson, an employee at Dive Experience on the boardwalk near Caribbean Sea Adventures, said the disconnected pipe has resulted in a lingering sewage smell for months. He said it smells worse on calm days when the wind is not blowing it away, noting that the stench is stronger near the point of discharge.
“Sometimes it’s worse than others,” he said. “Sometimes it’s really bad. It basically curtails people from doing water sports along the boardwalk.”
Ridgway, who said he shared video footage he took of the dislodged sewer pipe with the Waste Management Authority, questioned why seven months have passed without any effort to reconnect the pipe and stop the flow of sewage into the harbor.
“We just want it fixed,” he said.
Ron Phillips, WMA senior engineer project manager, said the Authority is aware of the situation.
“We’re looking into it,” he said.
Phillips said the high tide has deterred him and the Authority’s contractor, Marco St. Croix, from assessing the disconnected pipe.
“I went out there with the contractor, and every time we went out there it happened to be high tide,” he said. “I’m hoping that with low tide we could go out there and see exactly what it is, what’s occurring there.”
Phillips said the Authority had to run a new sewer line because the line was previously running in the middle of the former El Leon restaurant. He said a sewer line cannot be located inside a restaurant, so the new sewer line was installed.
The new sewer line is the same pipe that became disconnected underneath the boardwalk.
Phillips could not explain why WMA has not prioritized the sewage leak during the past seven months.
“I can’t really give you a statement because the thing about it is that I got to look into it,” he said. “First of all, I have to find out what the problem is, what is really occurring, and then we have to come up with a fix.”
Ridgway is not interested in waiting on WMA any longer, so he is pursuing legal action against the Authority. He pointed out that Caribbean Sea Adventures would be faced with a $10,000 fine per occurrence if one of his vessels discharged raw sewage into the sea. He said, however, the government has been doing it every day for more than 200 days.
“We feel that litigation is our only option at this point,” he said.
Ridgway said Caribbean Sea Adventures needs WMA to fix the leaking sewer pipe, noting that his company is also going to seek damages.
“We’ve already signed contracts with legal counsel, and they’re going to do their best to make sure that Waste Management is held accountable for this,” he said.
