Friends of Virgin Islands National Park has come out with a statement saying the Caneel Bay Resort should revert to the National Park Service in 2023 as the late Laurance S. Rockefeller wanted/NPS file

While Interior Department officials and CBI Acquisitions, LLC, outwardly appear in a standoff over the future operation of Caneel Bay Resort at Virgin Islands National Park, the park's friends group wants to see the resort property revert to the National Park Service as the late Laurance S. Rockefeller wanted.

Back in June the operator of the storm-battered resort said it would walk away from the resort if the government paid it $70 million and indemnify it from any liability related to environmental contamination of the 170-acre grounds the resort stands on. If the government refused to meet those demands, CBI said it would claim "all rights of ownership" over Caneel Bay Resort.

Gary Engle, president of EHI Acquisitions, LLC, as well as the authorized representative of CBI, laid out those terms in an April 30 letter to Interior Secretary David Bernhardt. 

This week Friends of Virgin Islands National Park, in an op-ed published in the Virgin Islands Daily News, called for Interior to take back the resort in September 2023 as stated in the "retained use estate" Rockefeller signed with the federal government in 1983.

"The Friends believes it is vitally important to restore and reopen the Caneel Bay property as expediently as possible, in a manner that ensures long-term protection of a critically important part of St. John's economy," wrote Todd Sampsell, the group's president. "We also believe a community visioning process to discuss desireable amenities, public access provisions, and cultural and natural resource protections should be initiated as an important opportunity to engage the residents of St. John."

In 2010, Congress passed a law directing the Interior Department to weigh whether it was better to keep the facilities under the RUE or create a concessions agreement for the resort, which CBI Aquisitions assumed from the Jackson Hole Preserve in 2004. Three years later the Park Service, after studying which management approach made the most sense for the agency via an environmental assessment, recommended that the operating agreement be redefined as a long-term lease more in line with typical concessions agreements.

The resort occupies a relatively small footprint on a peninsula on the island's northwestern shore, an area rich in cultural and archaeological resources.

Until recently, CBI has fought to see the RUE extended by six decades, and has worked with U.S. Rep. Stacy Plaskett, D-Virgin Islands, to land that extension. Engle has said a 60-year term is the minimal amount of time needed to "redesign and rebuild, and ... reestablish a resort in a highly competitive marketplace."

When Rockefeller structured the RUE that allowed the Caneel Bay Resort to be operated for private profit, among the provisions he inserted was a requirement that the operator use and maintain the grounds in a way that is "consistent with the preservation of such outstanding scenic and other features of national significance, and preseve the Premises to the extent feasible in their natural condition for the public benefit, enjoyment, and inspiration..."

Whether that has been done is questionable. 

Initial documents Traveler obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request included a 2014 environmental assessment of the Caneel Bay Resort property that raised questions of contamination from SVOCs -- semivolatile organic compounds -- often related to pesticides, and arsenic. "In addition, there are concerns for leachability of SVOCs, arsenic and mercury to groundwater," the report noted.

The surveys also found concentrations of total petroleum hydrocarbons and diesel-range organics above acceptable levels set by the Virgin Islands Department of Planning and Natural Resources.

While the assessment called for more extensive testing to determine the extent of these contaminants -- both across the ground surface and to determine depth of contamination -- records Traveler obtained said CBI had refused to allow a contractor for the Park Service to access the grounds to perform further testing.

Traveler continues to wait for the Park Service to completely fulfill its FOIA request, which was filed in March 2018.

Since September 2017, when hurricanes Irma and Maria pounded the resort, it has remained closed and in battered condition.

In his letter to Interior Secretary Bernhardt asking for the resort's operation to be resolved, Engle closed by pointing out CBI's ownership of the Caneel Bay marina, and that any other operator of the resort would have to negotiate to gain access to it.