By Trina A. San Agustin
Variety News Staff

THE Guam Waterworks Authority will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony for the Hagatna Sewage Treatment Plant at 10 a.m. today, and those present will be able to tour the state-of-the-art facility.
The refurbishing project commenced in April 2006 and the project contractor, Black Construction, completed the $10 million project recently.
The plant hasn’t been fully functional for 14 years or since an earthquake hit the island on Aug. 8, 1993, according to Variety files. The project was one of the many stipulations in the 2003 federal consent decree.
GWA spokesperson Heidi Ballendorf said the purpose of the plant is to process the sewage.
“We clean it up with all the modern equipment we have at the plant and it goes out of the outfall and that is how we ship the processed sewage to sea,” she said.
The outfall allows for the discharge of the effluent from the plant into the ocean. This morning, GWA will cut the ribbon and flip the switch, which Ballendorf said is “good news for Guam.”
The $20 million outfall project is still being worked on, and the project may not be complete until sometime next year. Information on the completion date of the outfall project was not immediately available.
Before the outfall project is completed, GWA will break ground on a project to improve the treatment plant’s pump station. The pump station project will cost GWA $400,000.
After all the work is done, officials are hopeful that the infamous smell that lingers near the Paseo Stadium in Hagatna will be gone, and surfers, swimmers and boaters will feel safe in Hagatna Bay.
Bond
The funding for the projects comes from $104 million worth of bonds issued for GWA in December 2005.
GWA was able to successfully sell bonds in the international financial market, with the proceeds earmarked for multi-million dollar projects that would finally upgrade the island’s dilapidated water and wastewater systems, according to Variety files.
When GWA got the bond money, they said it would specifically be used to rebuild various wastewater treatment plants like the Hagatna plant and other projects to allow GWA to comply with the consent decree.