“It means the clock is ticking now and CUC has to meet certain deadlines,” said Rep. Tina Sablan, chairwoman of the Saipan legislative delegation’s Public Utilities and Infrastructure Committee.
“There are penalties attached [to the stipulated orders], including monetary fines,” she said in an interview on Friday. “If there’s even any indication that CUC is unwilling or deliberately dropping the ball on any of these orders, then…they could be [cited for] contempt. There are serious penalties now that” the stipulated orders have been signed by the federal court.
Sablan, Ind.-Saipan, said the first deadline has to be met within the next 90 days, and CUC will need additional funding.
Bruce Megarr, CUC’s water and wastewater division director, told lawmakers last month that complying with the stipulated orders would cost $2 million in this fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30.
“When Bruce was here he was talking about the requirements, the really basic things that needed to be in place for CUC to be in a realistic position to comply with those orders, but it’s just for water and wastewater, and he talked about things like separate accounting, expedited procurement — we’re [also] going to have to raise the rates for water and wastewater, [but] it’s not clear to me whether any progress has been made on those very basic conditions for CUC to be in a financial position to comply with these orders because there are costs attached to all of the requirements,” Sablan said.
Even drafting a plan to comply with the orders will cost money, she added.
“CUC, the water and wastewater division particularly, has to have a stable source of revenue, and they’re talking about raising rates and separate accounting so that power is no longer subsidizing water and wastewater, and resources aren’t being taken from water and wastewater to subsidize power at the same time. But I don’t think CUC has gone even that far in terms of separate accounts.”
Asked if she believes that the administration, which runs CUC, will approve higher water and wastewater rates in an election year, Sablan said: “I’m not sure we have any choice though. I don’t even know if we have the benefit of waiting after the election. The clock is ticking and we have to get moving”
She said she is trying to set up a meeting with CUC Executive Director Antonio Muna.
“I called his office several times now — I haven’t received a response yet but I will try again today.”
According to Sablan, “Bruce has said what needs to be done but really it’s Mr. Muna that needs to tells us what has been done, what will be done. The thing that I am concerned about is this other stipulated order which we haven’t even addressed, and that’s for the used oil. There has been no briefing [about that issue] and about what we need to prepare for the cost that will be associated with that order.”
Sablan said funding remains the biggest challenge.
“Where do we get the money? That’s the perennial question for everything — the Retirement Fund, CUC, basic services. We need to get moving.”
The stipulated orders were filed in federal court last November by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, citing CUC’s long history of violating federal environmental safety and health laws and regulations.
