In his latest CNMI state of emergency declaration placing CUC under the executive branch’s control for yet another 31 days, Gov. Benigno R. Fitial said the U.S. Coast Guard also fined CUC after a September inspection showed environmental violations.
The governor said the Coast Guard now requires additional and more stringent measures to contain or eliminate the possibility of any oil reaching the Pacific Ocean from Saipan’s Power Plants 1 and 2 and the power plant on Rota.
He said serious deficiencies in the waste oil handling system at the CUC’s power plants surfaced during recent months.
One major deficiency is that Power Plant 1’s oily water separators are not functioning anymore because of the excessive amount of oil entering the system.
“As a result, oil was spilling onto the ground rather than being separated and skimmed off properly. Power Plant 1 has been sealed off to prevent any waste oil from leaving the plant and flowing into the oily water separators. To prevent oil from accumulating uncontained in the plant itself, emergency measures have been taken to store waste oil and to fabricate above-ground tanks,” the governor said.
“The oily water separators, pipes, holding tanks, and baffles are being cleaned out so that the entire system can be carefully inspected and re-engineered. All of the additional work is expensive. Regardless of who does the work initially, CUC staff, [Environmental Protection Agency] contractors, or a combination thereof, CUC requires skilled, trained workers for the cleanup. Failure to correct this situation could harm the nearby environment, CUC’s ability to generate electricity properly, and the assurances given pursuant to [federal] Stipulated Order 2,” Fitial added.
An oil technical manager is being hired following the incident.
The governor said CUC is in the process of disposing dozens of drums of used oil at power plant 1, the main source of electricity on Saipan.
Pipe systems collapsed
Age is also taking its toll on CUC’s sewage facilities.
CUC said key pipe systems have collapsed because they are made of asbestos and the 30 years of anaerobic conditions in those sewers make temporary solutions impractical.
“This has caused significant damage to cement and metal infrastructure so that key pipe systems have collapsed. Dec. 18, 2009 saw the sixth failure in six months. Failures will continue until 10 miles of sewer pipe are replaced,” the governor said.
“But replacement involves complex excavations, avoiding electric, phone and water utilities, blocking traffic, stopping the infiltration of seawater [which damages treatment plant facilities] and pumping sewage around blocked and excavated areas. The [wastewater] division has already far exceeded its repair budget,” he added.
Compounding the wastewater division’s technical problems is the fact that six of its vehicles are in really bad shape.
The governor said the limited transportation at the division makes it more difficult to bring materials to job sites at times.
Additionally, the division is seeing continued sewage lift station failures because of limited equipment at most pumping stations.
A pumping station should have two pumps installed but most of them only have one.
CUC said it is buying 30 additional pumps but the bureaucratic process would only enable it to acquire those after over six months.
The EPA earlier sued CUC in federal court and both parties signed two separate stipulated orders detailing corrective measures that CUC should implement on certain dates.
CUC has failed to comply and has been ordered to pay monetary fines.