The idled plant on St. Croix experienced a series of accidents over the course of last year that spewed noxious fumes and showered oil droplets onto nearby homes. Now deteriorating conditions at the massive facility are once again raising alarms.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is providing St. Croix residents with information on possible pollution via newly installed air quality control monitors around the Limetree Bay refinery.
The EPA said Thursday it was weighing whether a controversial refinery on St. Croix posed "an imminent risk to people's health" after a third accident in the span of three months sickened local residents and forced some schools to close.
Two years after Hurricanes Maria and Irma, records show the agency’s work on long-term recovery on the islands is crawling compared with some states on the mainland.
Analysts warn that without an infusion of cash from the federal government, the U.S. territory could fall into a permanent decline that would send thousands of refugees to the mainland.
