One villa manager reports paying almost twice as much as usual, $500 a truckload, for water for his rental properties, in the face of what’s resulted from a two-month deficit of rain. The water was barged over from St. Thomas because none was available on St. John.
On top of that, a reverse osmosis plant on St. John, which produces potable water, was offline for almost two weeks this month. It’s now back operating, according to the St. John Source.
Henry Boyd, a water hauler, said the Water and Power Authority doesn’t have enough money to connect a supply pipe from St. Thomas. He blames the local government for strangling the utility by not paying its own power and water bills.
Dennis Demar, of Vacation Homes, doesn’t blame tourists for all the water shortages at properties he manages. He also cites landscapers and drip irrigation systems. He said there is no way to turn them off, even if rain is falling, and there is no way to know if they’re not working right unless they are spitting gushers of water into the air.