usvi-on-line
Infrastructure on STJ
Infrastructure on STJ
Where does STJ get its power from?? Does it have its own independent power plant ? Oil burning?? What percentage of STJ homes have public water?? Where does the fresh water come from?? Does STT supply water and power to STJ?? Does STJ have a concrete plant?? Can the majority of rental villas exist on rainwater collection or would they be useless without a desalination plant? How much water is in an average cistern? Are there water pipes that bring water to most villas?
Where does the toilet flush end up in most island homes? Are there sewer pipes all over the island?? Where are the treatment plants? Who maintains them?
How many people have any idea what the answers are to any of these questions? I read so many posts here suggesting solutions and improvements to STJ - so I really wonder if many people actually understand the infrastructure.
Where does the toilet flush end up in most island homes? Are there sewer pipes all over the island?? Where are the treatment plants? Who maintains them?
How many people have any idea what the answers are to any of these questions? I read so many posts here suggesting solutions and improvements to STJ - so I really wonder if many people actually understand the infrastructure.
Re: Infrastructure on STJ
This is like a quiz. Let me try to answer!Exit Zero wrote:Where does STJ get its power from?? Does it have its own independent power plant ? Oil burning?? What percentage of STJ homes have public water?? Where does the fresh water come from?? Does STT supply water and power to STJ?? Does STJ have a concrete plant?? Can the majority of rental villas exist on rainwater collection or would they be useless without a desalination plant? How much water is in an average cistern? Are there water pipes that bring water to most villas?
Where does the toilet flush end up in most island homes? Are there sewer pipes all over the island?? Where are the treatment plants? Who maintains them?
How many people have any idea what the answers are to any of these questions? I read so many posts here suggesting solutions and improvements to STJ - so I really wonder if many people actually understand the infrastructure.
Where does STJ get its power from?? It comes over from sTT. There's a big cable right outside town feeding the island
Does it have its own independent power plant ? Not that I know of
Oil burning?? No
What percentage of STJ homes have public water?? I would suspect very few, because as I understand it, only some sections of the immediate Cruz Bay area have public water
Where does the fresh water come from?? Look up
Does STT supply water and power to STJ?? Power...yes. Water? I suspect they could be one source of the water trucks
Does STJ have a concrete plant?? Hmmm...not sure. There's a big industrial looking area off Centerline. Could be, but I think not.
Can the majority of rental villas exist on rainwater collection or would they be useless without a desalination plant? Don't they do that now (albeit likely with boosts from water trucks)
How much water is in an average cistern? Few hundred gallons, right?
Are there water pipes that bring water to most villas? Not many I would suspect
Where does the toilet flush end up in most island homes? They must have septic tanks of sorts...that's a good one...never pondered that one. Nemo taught me that all drains lead to the ocean though.
Are there sewer pipes all over the island?? Again...I tend to think not. I've never observed a manhole outside of town
Where are the treatment plants? IS there even a plant on StJ? Hmmm...
Who maintains them? Public works?
I get what you're doing. The island's infrastructure, I imagine, is barely adequate for what is there...and what continues to be built. One must be careful about it, but more often than not, the $$'s win when it comes to cautious building. Infrastructure is "someone else's problem"
The power comes from STT there is a Genn. by starfish for emergemcy don't think it would run the whole Island.
Just the area in cruz bay.
In Cruz Bay a pipe line from STT
Yes there is a concrete plant on Center line
For the most of the year the villa I stay at makes do with cistern water a long dry spell or inconsidered guest can make water delivery happen.
I don't know about average but where I stay if it is full it holds 29400 gallons split between 2 cisterns and they also have 4 plastic tanks that collect the water off of the driveway for the plants about 2000 per tank.
No they haul it by truck
Most villas have septic tanks.
No to the pipes.
The treatment plant for Cruz Bay and the stuff pumped out of the spetic tanks is not far from the tennis courts or car ferry dock.
Just the area in cruz bay.
In Cruz Bay a pipe line from STT
Yes there is a concrete plant on Center line
For the most of the year the villa I stay at makes do with cistern water a long dry spell or inconsidered guest can make water delivery happen.
I don't know about average but where I stay if it is full it holds 29400 gallons split between 2 cisterns and they also have 4 plastic tanks that collect the water off of the driveway for the plants about 2000 per tank.
No they haul it by truck
Most villas have septic tanks.
No to the pipes.
The treatment plant for Cruz Bay and the stuff pumped out of the spetic tanks is not far from the tennis courts or car ferry dock.
Tom
Re: Fire Coral
Not sure if it's fair for me to be answering this, but--
Our power does come from St. Thomas. St. john's back-up generator hasn't been able to run the whole island since about 1975. WAPA's St. Thomas plant burns Venezuelan bunker crude oil.
Only the Cruz Bay vicinity has public water. Many long-term residents rely totally on their cisterns and rarely if ever buy water by the truck- load. Many rental villas and places like Maho Bay (!) buy many, many, many truck- loads a year. That water is made from seawater by the reverse -osmosis (R/O) plant at Frank Bay. The power comes from the St. Thomas power cable. If the plant is operating at less than capacity in the dry season,or the demand is simply too high, trucks come from St. Thomas on the barge, at an extra few hundred dollars a load for the consumer. There has been talk of bringing a water line from St. Thomas for years, since their R/O plant apparently produces more than is needed.
St. John has had more than one concrete plant in the past, I don't believe any are operating anymore. Even with a plant here,concrete trucks were roaring off the barges in huge numbers during our big building boom 1995-2005. THey almost always dumped their excess concrete on the roads or in the forest before returning to St. T.
The majority of villas and many other accommodations (new affordable housing at Calabash Boom for example) could not exist without the R/O plant. No swimming pools, no irrigation, no phony Florida landscaping. Caneel and the Westin have their own R/O plants--run on WAPA power, unless it goes out.
I'm not sure how about the capacity of the average cistern, just mine. There used to be rules in the building code that you had to have a certain gallon capacity per square ft. of roof area. That doesn't seem to happen anymore.
We are right now in the middle of our dry season, and the trucks are lined up 6 and 7 deep around the clock at the standpipe. Good luck if you run out of water in the dry season and you are not a villa that buys a lot from a specific trucker...or you're not related to, or sleeping with, a water truck owner. ( An aside: there are NO emissions controls in the VI, as is evident whenever you are close to a water truck. They are also EXTREMELY heavy when full, and tear up roads very quickly)
99% of houses outside downtown Cruz Bay will have septic tank, regardless of the proximity to the sea---not that that makes a huge difference when you get rainfalls of over an inch an hour, which happen frequently. There is one public treatment plant in Cruz Bay. It's still new , and doesn't malfunction too often yet.I believe it is maintained by the Waste Management Authority, with some of their $65 million a year or whatever the hell it is. There are also plants at Caneel (don't ask) the Westin (ditto) Cinnamon, and the new affordable housing. What Maho does with sewage is a good question.
You didn't even mention our garbage, but I'll tell you. A long time ago, it was dumped on the edge of Enighed Pond, and burned. Then there was an incinerator at Susannaberg, that only incinerated for a few years. Then everything got dumped down into the top of Guinea Gut at Susannaberg, until it caught fire underneath, and it took months to get it out, Now everything gets shipped to St. Thomas, to the enormous Bovoni so-called landfill that gets higher and higher every year. So now our government tells us we can take down two hills on a pristine piece of coast and burn our trash and toxic oil refinery byproducts from St. Croix. And they wonder why we don't buy it?
Enough, here we locals go hijacking the forum again...
Our power does come from St. Thomas. St. john's back-up generator hasn't been able to run the whole island since about 1975. WAPA's St. Thomas plant burns Venezuelan bunker crude oil.
Only the Cruz Bay vicinity has public water. Many long-term residents rely totally on their cisterns and rarely if ever buy water by the truck- load. Many rental villas and places like Maho Bay (!) buy many, many, many truck- loads a year. That water is made from seawater by the reverse -osmosis (R/O) plant at Frank Bay. The power comes from the St. Thomas power cable. If the plant is operating at less than capacity in the dry season,or the demand is simply too high, trucks come from St. Thomas on the barge, at an extra few hundred dollars a load for the consumer. There has been talk of bringing a water line from St. Thomas for years, since their R/O plant apparently produces more than is needed.
St. John has had more than one concrete plant in the past, I don't believe any are operating anymore. Even with a plant here,concrete trucks were roaring off the barges in huge numbers during our big building boom 1995-2005. THey almost always dumped their excess concrete on the roads or in the forest before returning to St. T.
The majority of villas and many other accommodations (new affordable housing at Calabash Boom for example) could not exist without the R/O plant. No swimming pools, no irrigation, no phony Florida landscaping. Caneel and the Westin have their own R/O plants--run on WAPA power, unless it goes out.
I'm not sure how about the capacity of the average cistern, just mine. There used to be rules in the building code that you had to have a certain gallon capacity per square ft. of roof area. That doesn't seem to happen anymore.
We are right now in the middle of our dry season, and the trucks are lined up 6 and 7 deep around the clock at the standpipe. Good luck if you run out of water in the dry season and you are not a villa that buys a lot from a specific trucker...or you're not related to, or sleeping with, a water truck owner. ( An aside: there are NO emissions controls in the VI, as is evident whenever you are close to a water truck. They are also EXTREMELY heavy when full, and tear up roads very quickly)
99% of houses outside downtown Cruz Bay will have septic tank, regardless of the proximity to the sea---not that that makes a huge difference when you get rainfalls of over an inch an hour, which happen frequently. There is one public treatment plant in Cruz Bay. It's still new , and doesn't malfunction too often yet.I believe it is maintained by the Waste Management Authority, with some of their $65 million a year or whatever the hell it is. There are also plants at Caneel (don't ask) the Westin (ditto) Cinnamon, and the new affordable housing. What Maho does with sewage is a good question.
You didn't even mention our garbage, but I'll tell you. A long time ago, it was dumped on the edge of Enighed Pond, and burned. Then there was an incinerator at Susannaberg, that only incinerated for a few years. Then everything got dumped down into the top of Guinea Gut at Susannaberg, until it caught fire underneath, and it took months to get it out, Now everything gets shipped to St. Thomas, to the enormous Bovoni so-called landfill that gets higher and higher every year. So now our government tells us we can take down two hills on a pristine piece of coast and burn our trash and toxic oil refinery byproducts from St. Croix. And they wonder why we don't buy it?
Enough, here we locals go hijacking the forum again...
Re: Fire Coral
I love the local input and perspective, keep it up.hugo wrote: Enough, here we locals go hijacking the forum again...
Interesting thread. Having spent some years working in residential and commercial development, I wonder about the infrastructure and overal "how do they make it work" (or not)
On our first STJ trip, we (husband and I) spent at least a half hour at Penn's discussing construction and logistics with someone in the office. We rented a Jeep from them. I think I still have a copy of a price list for materials in my honeymoon file.
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chicagoans
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Exit I'm assuming your questions are rhetorical to get us thinking about these issues (and I agree that we should.)
The other ones I wonder about are garbage collection and recycling. Where does all the garbage go? Is there recycling and if not, why not? I try to be careful not to generate alot of waste anyway (no paper plates for me), but especially on island because I just don't see how it can handle all the garbage that people produce.
The other ones I wonder about are garbage collection and recycling. Where does all the garbage go? Is there recycling and if not, why not? I try to be careful not to generate alot of waste anyway (no paper plates for me), but especially on island because I just don't see how it can handle all the garbage that people produce.
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Teddy Salad
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Thank you Hugo and Exit Zero. I'm a water commissioner for my tiny island and it is always interesting learn how other communities get their water and dispose of it. I had always noticed the curb stop covers in Cruz Bay and wondered how much of the west end was piped. This all good stuff for us STJ lovers to be aware of.
Interesting stuff. I have always wondered how the water leaches out of the septic systems since the island is basically rock. I knew the electric came from STT cause they had problems at the plant a couple vacations ago and we were without power for a day and a half. Sure was glad for the pool so we could flush the toilets.