EPA shuts polluting Caribbean refinery reopened under Trump

Nearby residents in the US Virgin Islands, have endured water contamination and noxious fumes that closed three schools

The Environmental Protection Agency has ordered an oil refinery in the US Virgin Islands to pause all operations, citing at least four incidents" in which the facility significantly affected St Croix residents. The Limetree Bay refinery, which caused a massive oil spill in the 1980s, first reopened in February under an order from the Trump administration, after eight years idle.

These repeated incidents at the refinery have been and remain totally unacceptable," said the EPA head, Michael Reagan, noting that residents in St Croix are already overburdened" by pollution and other environmental harms.