In a press release issued late Thursday hailing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ approval of the long-awaited permit for the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority’s St. Thomas propane conversion project, Delegate to Congress Stacey Plaskett said she played an instrumental role in making sure that ACOE worked quickly in attending to the Authority’s permit request.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Plaskett said her office had been working closely with WAPA, the ACOE, and the Northern Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) toward streamlining the permitting process for development of projects in the territory, which has been a priority since Mrs. Plaskett took office in 2015, according to the release.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am pleased to see the Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) make good on their promise to resolve the backlogs that have delayed the permitting for various development projects in our territory,” she said. “I am encouraged and remain hopeful that this approval is emblematic of the Corps\u2019 commitment to continue their work toward expediting the decision-making process, which has been at the heart of many of our local project delays that have caused hardship to the territory and have put significant investments and critical regional resources at risk.”<\/p>\n
The approval of the ACOE Permit will allow WAPA to improve, enhance, and convert the existing fuel pier at the Harley plant and offshore vessel mooring, to use liquid propane gas (LPG) as the primary source of fuel for power generation.<\/p>\n