By Moneth G. Deposa
Variety News Staff

TINIAN lawmakers want all future capital improvement project funding for the island earmarked for its wastewater project until it is fully completed.
Sen. Henry San Nicolas, chairman of the Tinian legislative delegation, said this will allow for the reprogramming of $3.9 million allocated for the project.
The delegation wants to use the $3.9 million for the installation of an instrument landing system, or ILS, at the Tinian airport so it can accommodate large aircraft.
However, the U.S. Office of Insular Affairs has questioned the move, citing the affect of the reprogramming on the wastewater project.
OIA allocated $7 million in CIP funds for the project, of which $6.9 million remains available.
According to OIA, a lengthy or indefinite delay in the completion of the wastewater project would tie up CIP funds allocated to it and likely result in increased project costs and necessary revisions to the environmental assessment the project is undergoing.
“We concede the importance of the wastewater project,” San Nicolas said, “but we decided to prioritize the ILS in order to stimulate the declining Tinian economy,” San Nicolas told Variety yesterday, adding that they will adopt a legislative delegation resolution which will be their official response to the OIA’s inquiry about reprogramming wastewater funds.
“OIA’s concern is with what will happen to the future of the wastewater project (once we reprogram the $3.9 million)…so we are now saying that future CIP funding for Tinian will be used for the wastewater project,” he said.
San Nicolas said once the ILS is installed, there will be more flights to Tinian which will then result in a substantial increase in revenue.
In contrast, he added, the wastewater project may cost over $15 million and due to the limited federal CIP funding, it may take five more years to obtain the needed amount.
He said Tinian’s ILS can be operational before the end of the year.