Coast Guard Continues Oversight of Diesel Oil Spill at WAPA on STT

The U.S. Coast Guard continues oversight of ongoing response efforts following a diesel spill at the V.I. Water and Power Authority Randolph Harley Power Plant on St. Thomas on Saturday, the agency said Wednesday.

The spill occurred when a shipment of diesel was offloaded at the Harley plant late last week and one of the onshore storage tanks appears to have overflowed. About 30-40 percent of the spillage ended up outside the tank’s exterior secondary containment unit, which is meant to function like a dam to contain the liquid, WAPA CEO Andy Smith said at the time.

So far, the oil recovery crews have collected 18,000 gallons of diesel and water from the discharge tank’s secondary containment and an additional 8,000 gallons of diesel and water have been collected from the affected land outside the secondary containment, the press release stated.

As of Wednesday morning, the facility had emptied the No. 11 tank, the primary source of the discharge, and only sludge and residual material remain inside the tank. Responders continue working to fully empty the tank and recover all residual material, the release stated.

Responders have also recovered all diesel from the secondary containment and efforts are underway to decontaminate the space and continue assessments to identify the breach point that caused diesel to spill landside, the Coast Guard said.