HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Following an inquiry from The Guam Daily Post regarding the $13 million figure cited in a release calling for the Guam Waterworks Authority to connect homes to sewer lines, Sen. Chris Dueñas’ office stated that “new findings” show figures similar to what GWA described to the Post, which include a $5 million balance in the utility’s system development charge, or SDC, account. But Dueñas’ office also pointed to the “bigger picture,” stating that nearly 2,000 homes remain unconnected to sewer lines that “they rightfully deserve to be connected to.”
Dueñas issued his release Monday, following the public hearing on Bill 175-37 last week. The measure, of which Dueñas is the main sponsor, proposes changes to laws governing toilet facilities and sewage disposal to help landowners who cannot develop their properties because of sewer unavailability.
The measure also is intended to help protect the Northern Guam Lens Aquifer from the threat of nitrate pollution, partly by proposing advanced nitrogen-reducing systems as a fourth type of toilet facility.
The Guam Environmental Protection Agency expressed concerns that the bill’s proposed changes to allowable unsewered lot sizes would result in significant degradation of the aquifer, even with Type 4 systems in place.
A Realtor and professional civil engineer commented at the hearing that there are 1,800 Type 2 disposal systems – or septic tanks and leaching fields – built close to sewer lines. He asked, rhetorically, whether the government should pursue connecting those systems to sewer lines if reducing nitrate contamination in groundwater was of primary importance.
In his press release issued Monday, Dueñas said it was unacceptable that “no actions” have been taken to connect nearly 2,000 households to “the readily available sewer system.” He called on GWA to take action, adding that there was “no room for excuses” with more than $13 million in GWA’s system development charge account.
GWA General Manager Miguel Bordallo, however, said Dueñas’ information appeared incorrect based on the agency’s reporting to the Consolidated Commission on Utilities. According to Bordallo, GWA’s last report indicates expenditure/encumbrances of $12.4 million and an SDC fund balance of about $5 million, with $1.1 million earmarked for capital improvement projects.
Customers are supposed to pay for connection
Bordallo also clarified that when it comes to connecting GWA customers with septic systems to sewer lines, the customer is to pay those costs, as per the GWA rules. The utility has a sewer connection loan program to assist customers connecting to an existing sewer system.
When informed of Bordallo’s statement on the SDC funds, and asked for clarification on where the senator found the $13 million figure, Dueñas’ office stated that the figure came up during research for Bill 175.
“New findings indicate expenditures/encumbrances of about $12 million and an available SDC fund balance of about $5 million, of which $1.1 million has been earmarked for CIPs. Regardless of that fact, the nearly 2,000 homes await while we play politics with their land,” the senator’s office stated in a release Wednesday afternoon.
The senator appreciates GWA’s efforts, he said in the release, but added that it is clear the issue of unconnected sewer lines continues to pose a significant threat to the environment and people’s health.
“If you go back to a virtual public hearing on Bill No. 404-35 introduced in the 35th Guam Legislature, this issue was brought up nearly several years ago. Unfortunately, nothing has changed in regards to this concern, and I refuse to sit idle. The committee report for Bill 404 will show that those who oppose my bill now supported it then; and back then, the bill was to include parental lots as stated in the title of the act. So I ask the naysayers: What’s your solution?” Dueñas said in the release.
“As a senator, my job is not to tell an agency or their heads how to do their jobs. My job is to urge them to be as transparent and honest with our people because that’s what I’ve been fighting for since I came back into office in 2021,” Dueñas added.
Concerns
There are various concerns tied to the issue of sewer availability and parental or decedent lots. They include environmental and health concerns that arise from nitrate contamination in the aquifer, which can occur through discharges from septic tanks. Another concern appears to be the disparate treatment of decedent estates versus parental subdivisions.
Current law allows for development on unsewered lots of at least a half-acre in size, and Guam EPA policy allows development within the Groundwater Protection Zone of unsewered lots down to a quarter-acre in size, but as an exception for parental subdivisions only.
Former Sen. Regine Biscoe Lee introduced Bill 404 in late 2020, which proposed to bar the installation of septic tanks on land above Guam’s Groundwater Protection Zone if a sewage connection is available, or if the lot is less than a half-acre when sewage is unavailable, regardless of whether the land is a parental subdivision.
By December 2020, following a few public hearings and backlash from real estate agents and landowners, Lee promised to amend her bill to allow the permitting of advanced nitrogen-reducing systems for parental subdivisions above the aquifer. However, she left office before the bill could pass.
Bill 175 would bar more than two dwellings per acre when private sewage disposal systems, including septic tanks, are in use. But it also allows up to four dwellings when advanced nitrogen-reducing systems are in use. This would apply to everyone.
For parental subdivisions and decedent lots, specifically, Bill 175 allows up to six dwellings per acre above the GPZ, assuming advanced nitrogen-reducing systems are in use.
It’s this increased dwelling density and reduction of minimum lot sizes that largely drew concern from Guam EPA during the public hearing on Bill 175. According to Guam EPA Director Michelle Lastimoza, those changes would result in significant degradation of the groundwater quality, even with advanced nitrogen-reducing systems.
The Guam Power Authority and Guam Waterworks Authority headquarters are seen Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024, at the Gloria B. Nelson Public Service Building in Mangilao.
