USVI: Stink-a-sweet

With the dredging for the $16 million Enighed Pond Marine Freight Facility Project still stirring up a stench, the V.I. Port Authority will try to mask the odor of rotten eggs with a deodorizing mist.

On Monday, Port Authority employees set up two portable, electrical aerosol applicators owned by V.I. Public Works Department near the dredged material discharge line. The misters will operate during active dredging, when the smell is the strongest, Dale Gregory, director of engineering for the Port Authority, said in a released statement.

Stirred up sediment that has collected runoff for years is the source of the foul smell. While earlier chemical tests revealed no hazardous substances at the bottom of the pond, it has been a discharge point for a sewage treatment plant, and the land around it has been used as a municipal garbage dump, according to the V.I. Department of Planning and Natural Resources.