In an interview on Tuesday, CPA Executive Director Efrain F. Camacho said the cleanup of the soil located at the northeast side of the airport is still in progress.
CPA’s target date to get the job done, Camacho said, is no later than November.
Allied Pacific Environmental Consulting has been contracted to do the job.
Once the soil cleanup is done and gets the approval of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, CPA will finally get the permit to operate its new incinerator which is already in place.
Camacho said CPA is still using the old incinerator for the trash gathered from airlines on a regular basis.
The EPA has required CPA to replace the old incinerator with one that is in compliance with environmental protection regulations in terms of air emission quality standards.
Saipan Seaport manager Mary Ann Q. Lizama, in an e-mail, said a new incinerator was needed because the Spronz incinerator unit has already been decommissioned.
Allied Pacific refurbished the Consumat incinerator unit while CPA obtained the necessary permits and other requirements needed to run the new one.
Lizama said when the EPA was inspecting CPA, its old incinerator was one of the violations noted.
However, the size of the area contaminated was not significant, she added.
“CPA continues to address the concerns raised by EPA,” she said.
Camacho said something is being done to correct the problem.
He said the fuel spill has contaminated the soil, which has to be removed and disposed based on EPA regulations.
Some of the soil was shipped to the U.S. due to the nature of contaminant, while the least contaminated soil was disposed at the Marpi solid waste landfill with the approval of the Division of Environmental Quality, Camacho said.
