By Gina Tabonares
Variety News Staff

SIDESTEPPING the idea of “receivership,” the federal government recommended that the District Court of Guam order new deadlines for the government of Guam to meet its consent decree obligations to close the Ordot Dump and open a new landfill.
Federal agencies, through the U.S. Attorney’s Office, said the court should not allow GovGuam to continue its excuses and delays.
This was the federal agencies’ response to GovGuam’s motion to modify the consent decree to extend the deadlines to construct a landfill in Layon and close the existing Ordot Dump for another four years.
Instead of federal government receivership, the U.S. Attorney’s Office requested that the court issue an order enforcing the consent decree and establish a series of interim milestones for GovGuam to meet in order to achieve prompt compliance.
According to U.S. Attorney for Guam and the CNMI Lenny Rapadas, the proposed milestones are intended to address solid waste management organizational deficits, improve the quality of solid waste management service for its residential customers, and establish a reliable billing and collection system for solid waste management.
Rapadas said all of these are critical prerequisites for obtaining the bond financing necessary to pay for the work required by the consent decree.
After reviewing the GovGuam and the Public Utilities Commission’s order and response, the federal agencies proposed the following interim milestones:
1) By April 2, 2007, GovGuam shall provide an operations report to the court and the U.S. identifying all equipment and supplies necessary to properly operate residential waste collections service, transfer stations, the Ordot Dump, including but not limited to packer trucks, and scales to measure incoming waste at both the transfer stations, and the Ordot Dump.
2) By April 30, 2007, the Solid Waste Management Division shall be reconstituted as a public corporation under the governance of Consolidated Commission on Utilities. GovGuam shall submit by April 2, 2007 a copy of the proposed enabling legislation for the new corporation to the United States and PUC for review and approval.
3) By April 2, 2007, Guam’s public auditor shall complete its report on SWM’s accounts receivable and shall provide a copy to PUC and the U.S.
4) By no later than July 30, 2007, the new corporation shall file with PUC a petition for approval of procurement documents and a plan for implementing a proposal to procure the services of a company to collect residential waste for the island, or privatize its billing and collections or establish a protocol under which the Guam Environmental Protection Agency would undertake the responsibility. It also suggested restructuring its business relationship with commercial haulers.
5) By no later than May 30, 2007, PUC, working in conjunction with SWM’s financial advisors, shall develop a financial plan. Based on PUC’s Financial Plan, the new corporation shall submit to PUC a petition for approval of the revenue bonds by no later than July2, 2007.
6) By no later than Jan. 15, 2008, the new corporation shall have negotiated the acquisition and use of the Layon site for the new landfill.
7) Beginning on April 15, 2007 and continuing on the 15th of each month until Feb. 15, 2008, GovGuam shall provide a monthly compliance report to the court and the U.S.
8) In order to monitor GovGuam’s compliance with these interim milestones, the U.S. requests the court to schedule a monthly status conference and require a senior GovGuam official to attend these monthly status conferences to ensure that GovGuam’s compliance with the court’s order is a top priority.
The federal government also stated that it will ask the court to issue an additional order to establish new compliance dates for construction of the consent decree projects.