NEWS BRIEF: DPNR Issues ‘Half-Territory’ Beach Advisory; St. Croix and St. John Left in the Dark
By JOHN McCARTHY / St. Croix Sun Staff Writer
FREDERIKSTED — The Department of Planning and Natural Resources (DPNR) released its weekly territorial Beach Water Quality Monitoring Program advisory on Friday, May 15, 2026, revealing a massive testing blackout for the island of St. Croix and sister island St. John.
While the Division of Environmental Protection successfully performed water quality analyses at 11 popular swimming beaches on St. Thomas between May 11 and May 15—clearing all 11 as safe for swimming and fishing—not a single sample was collected or analyzed from the shores of St. Croix or St. John.
According to the official release from the Office of the Commissioner, samples were completely omitted from:
All beaches on St. Croix
All beaches on St. John
Water Bay and Bluebeards Beach on St. Thomas
Honeymoon Beach on Water Island
Water Quality Deemed ‘Unknown’
Because these critical coastal zones went completely ignored by territorial environmental workers this week, DPNR admits that the current bacterial water quality for St. Croix and St. John is officially "unknown."
The advisory explicitly warned the public that swimming in waters heavily impacted by sewage, stormwater runoff, or high concentrations of sargassum poses an elevated health risk due to bacteria and other toxic contaminants. Despite issuing this generic, automated health warning, the department provided zero explanation as to why the monitoring program failed to execute its basic public safety duties outside of St. Thomas.
The Pattern of Bureaucratic Interruption
Insiders familiar with the territory's environmental procurement systems suggest that localized testing blackouts like this frequently align with administrative budget holds, internal procurement delays, or an ongoing failure by the Government of the Virgin Islands to pay the external contractors tasked with pulling weekly water samples.
By leaving St. Croix and St. John out of the weekly testing budget, the government forces local beachgoers, fishermen, and families to step into the Caribbean Sea entirely at their own risk.
The St. Croix Sun will be monitoring this pattern of missing data. For those demanding answers or requesting information on when testing will resume on the Big Island, the Division of Environmental Protection can be reached directly at (340) 773-1082 at the Mars Hill headquarters in Frederiksted.
