Two years ago, the U.S. Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency signed and lodged two stipulation orders requiring CUC to bring its wastewater plants and collection systems, public drinking water systems, five power plants, and oil transfer pipeline into federal compliance.
Attorney Deborah Fisher, who is representing CUC, told Judge David O. Carter, senior attorney Bradley R. O’Brien of the U.S. Department of Justice’s environmental enforcement section, and the CNMI Attorney General’s Office that she will “give the court and parties a clear picture of CUC areas of current concern.”
Fisher’s letter informed them that CUC cannot meet its deadlines on the following:
• CUC pipeline due on June 1, 2011
• procure approved response equipment (facility response project) on site by Feb. 4, 2011
• complete all secondary containment requirements by March 7, 2011
• tank system cleanout plan and schedule for Tanks 101, 102, 105 and the Rota Tanks by Feb. 15, 2011.
Fisher said CUC is in the process of preparing and executing a contract for deputy executive director water and wastewater, who must report to work by Dec. 29, 2010.
The candidate for division manager, drinking water and wastewater “has been non-responsive.” This division manager should have reported to work by Dec. 22, 2010.
CUC pipeline
“CUC does not believe…that it is going to be able to meet the deadline because it has not been able to obtain materials to date and has not identified the funding required for the materials, as well as for the construction that needs to immediately follow,” Fisher said.
Facility response project
Fisher said CUC originally published the request for proposals for spill equipment beginning Sept. 27, 2010 which was extended, and the bid closed on Oct. 26, 2010.
The bids received did not fully cover all the equipment, Fisher said, adding that CUC then approached the Clean Islands Council, a not-for-profit oil spill response organization and cooperative, which offered to assist CUC to buy spill response equipment at cost.
“CUC needs to send the vendor details and the partial list for [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency] approval.
In addition, procurement actions will also be required for the balance of the items which were in the bid and cannot be supplied by [the Clean Islands Council],” Fisher said.
Secondary containment
Fisher said “CUC is concerned about its ability to complete all secondary containment requirements.”
“The second joint stipulation does not break down secondary containment by area, but CUC does so in this letter because it believes that this would not be helpful to the parties and the court,” Fisher said.
For Power Plants 1 and 2, Fisher said “CUC expects a minor delay in completion of all the sub-projects included in this contract due to difficulty in timely response to its inquiries during the holiday season.”
For Power Plant 4, which is operated by a private independent power producer that supplies power to the CUC grid, Fisher said “CUC believes that the time required to complete…work, receive EPA approval and actual construction (field work) will not be completed by the deadline.”
Tank system cleanout plan
Fisher said “CUC is very concerned that it has still not received approval on its tank cleanout work plan” as its first concern.
“CUC is very concerned about funding,” Fisher added.
