By Gina Tabonares
Variety News Staff

DESPITE the penalties that are expected to reach $1 million in a few months, the government of Guam remains unperturbed about meeting the Ordot Dump Consent Decree deadlines, prompting the U.S. Attorney’s Office to file a motion yesterday asking the court to impose a set of court enforced deadlines.
U.S. Attorney for the Districts of Guam and the NMI Lenny Rapadas filed a motion with the District Court of Guam on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to enforce the consent decree with Guam for the construction of a new landfill and the closure of the Ordot Dump.
Rapadas said the federal government filed the motion after the Guam Department of Public Works failed to complete the design, permitting and construction of the new landfill and has failed to award a contract for its construction.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, DPW also failed to award a contract to properly and permanently close the Ordot Dump.
Under the February 2004 Consent Decree, GovGuam was required to award a construction contract for the new landfill by April 21, 2006 while completion for the closure of Ordot Dump was to be on Oct. 23, 2007.
However, GovGuam failed to comply with the consent decree and failed to raise the financial resources to comply.
As of Jan. 31, 2007, the USEPA-assessed penalty, at a rate of $5,000 per day, under the stipulated penalties for missed deadlines to complete the contract for Ordot’s closure has reached $839,500.
Last month, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the USEPA brought the continuing violations of the government of Guam before the court, saying that the local government, specifically DPW, is unwilling to meet its obligations and intends to purposely violate the consent decree.
During a status conference with Judge Joaquin Manibusan, lawyers representing DPW cited lack of funds and the complexity of landfill design, and asked for at least 21 more months to build a new dump for an estimated $20 million funding.
“Today’s action is necessary to ensure the work to build a new landfill for Guam is completed and the Ordot Dump properly closed to protect the residents and environment of Guam,” said Rapadas.
“We are disappointed that GovGuam has fallen short in complying with the consent decree and the important effort to improve the island’s solid waste disposal. We are asking the court to impose these deadlines, creating the basic building blocks that will allow GovGuam to eventually meet its obligations,” he added.
In January 2005, the USEPA assessed a $7,250 stipulated penalty on GovGuam for failing to identify a new landfill site. In early 2006, a fine of $7,500 was assessed for failing to submit the draft final plan for the new landfill.
By May 2006, the USEPA had assessed stipulated penalties in the amounts of $51,500 and $7,000 for failure to submit a draft wetlands mitigation plan, and to award a contract for the Ordot Dump closure.
Atty. Robert Mullaney earlier told the court that their intention is not to simply collect fees from GovGuam but to get some options to move forward and to pressure the local government to prioritize the creation of a new landfill.
He said for over 10 years, the federal government has been attempting to solve the problem with the government of Guam and extending the deadline will resolve the problem.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office’s motion was a response to the instruction of Judge Manibusan to submit its proposal on how the court should address the landfill issue.
Judge Manibusan also told GovGuam lawyers to submit their motion to modify the deadlines of the consent decree.
Feb. 14, 2007 was the deadline for the federal government to reply to the motion while local lawyers have until Feb. 21 to respond. A motion hearing is set for March 8 at 9 a.m.