USVI-On-Line

We're visiting in a couple weeks but recently read that the EPA ? had declared the water unfit for swimming and fishing etc. after Omar, due to bacteria associated with the run-off. I was wondering if the ban had been lifted. Also, is the water clarity back to normal.Thanks

According to another thread posted here, all of the beaches are back up and running now. While it's still hurricane season and anything is possible, I think that everything has pretty much recovered from Omar on STJ.

I will also be down there in a couple of weeks, so I'm watching to see how everything is going.

Magens Bay on St. Thomas was the most effected. It was the local department of natural resources that declared the closures. Hugo on island mentioned that he saw people on the St. John beaches and head no reported issues.

Cheers, RickG

I don't know if this was already mentioned by anyone in any of these threads about the water but the situation is not that uncommon. Certain beaches on St. Thomas and St. John are frequently deemed unsafe for swimming after significant rainfalls - not to mention tropical storms or hurricanes. The simple fact is that the runoff really has nowhere else to go -

And the heavy runoffs apparently have some really bad stuff which causes problems at most of the beaches and bays for a few days, but then is diluted out and cleaned up.

In Michigan, where I lived for many years, the beaches on the lakes would get polluted (usually if it rained a lot or if it was really hot), and they'd close the beaches down for 2-3 days and then be back to normal. It wasn't a really big deal, and it never really scared me. The ocean's a lot bigger and moves more than a lake, so I'm sure it's all good now.

By the time we left just this past Monday...things seemed to have returned to normal...minus a few guts in the beaches from runoff. I'm working on a few pictures as we speak...