Technical Problems

St. Thomas and even St. John get a lot of cruise ship visitors, but St. Croix's cruise ship traffic came to a screeching halt some time ago. Some of the cruise ship lines said they were pulling out because of the high crime rate--specifically the crimes against passengers and crew members. But St. Croix has plenty of other problems, too. Yesterday, they were scheduled to receive their ONE cruise ship for the season (and it's been over a year since a ship visited there). But the Radisson Diamond canceled its St. Croix call and went to Virgin Gorda instead. They cited "technical problems," but everyone seems to know the real reason. The ship didn't want to call on Fredericksted because there's raw sewage flowing near the Fredericksted pier and onto the public beach there. And this isn't isn't a rare occurrence--it's been flowing for a month. Raw sewage is a frequent problem on the big island. A couple of months ago, there was a large photo on the front page of the paper showing a woman gingerly crossing a street in Christiansted, trying to avoid the sewage flowing in the street. That's right, we're a U.S. territory and our largest island has raw sewage flowing onto streets and beaches. Maybe our government employees could spend a little less on government vehicles (most of which are treated as personal cars) and travel and overtime pay...and just a little more on waste management.