ST. THOMAS — The Department of Planning and Natural Resources (DPNR), the U.S. Coast Guard and salvage contractors completed vessel pollution mitigation and removal operations on St. John, Wednesday, the USVI Emergency Support Function-10 (ESF-10), a division of the U.S. Coast Guard, announced Thursday. The Coast Guard completed its vessel removal operation on St. Croix in January.
ESF-10 said it is responsible for identifying and removing oil and other hazardous material from the maritime environment. Assessments conducted following Hurricanes Irma and Maria identified 169 sunken or displaced vessels on St. John. The pollution threats were eliminated, and the vessels were removed, ESF-10 said.
With operations complete on St. Croix and St. John, ESF-10 started shifting all of its resources to St. Thomas on Thursday.
“Our mission here is to protect the public and maritime environment by mitigating the pollution threat of the sunken and displaced vessels, and we are about 80 percent complete,” said Cmdr. David Reinhard, Coast Guard Incident Commander, USVI ESF-10.
To date, more than 386 vessels have been removed through owner insurance, direct owner salvage or under ESF-10 pollution mitigation operations. ESF-10 operations continue to be conducted on St. Thomas to address the 90 remaining vessels.
Vessel owners can contact DPNR through the Vessel Owner Notification Hotline at 340-423-6353 and email at [email protected]
Feature Image: Petty Officer Ken Freeman and Lieutenant Junior Grade Henry Dumphy assess the vessel Leylon Sneed before it was refloated and returned to the owner, Wednesday. The Leylon Sneed was the last vessel removed from St John under FEMA’s ESF – 10 mission. (Coast Guard Photo by Petty Officer Alex Shunda)
Tags: coast guard, U.S. Virgin Islands, Vessel Removal
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