Major oil spills caused by Hurricane Hugo, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands

Abstract

The destruction caused by Hurricane Hugo in September 1989 resulted in two major oil spills on the island of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. Roughly 10,000 barrels of oil were discharged from damaged storage tanks at the Hess Oil Virgin Islands Corporation (HOVIC), and 14,000 barrels of oil were discharged from the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority (VIWAPA) facility in Christiansted. Pollution responders overcame the lack of power, water, food, lodging, communications, and transportation to perform an effective cleanup of these spills. This paper presents details of the pollution response effort as coordinated by the federal on-scene coordinator.