CUC water and wastewater division manager Mariano Iglecias said their delegation of work is administered smoothly and the responsibilities of personnel, especially in the field, are well defined.
But, he added, “there is still overlapping of work especially in the repair and maintenance effort.”
Iglecias said CUC has already submitted its water and wastewater structural evaluation and reorganization report to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in compliance with the federal stipulated orders.
The order requires CUC to comply with Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act.
CUC deputy director Bruce Megarr signed the evaluation and reorganization plan, along with the detailed schedule regarding their plan to improve the efficiency of CUC.
In the structural evaluation and reorganization plan, Megarr stated that CUC “realize that given the stipulated orders, level of deferred maintenance, and extraordinary repair work necessary, additional resources may be required to bring the divisions to steady-state normal and ordinary.”
He said their equipment is old and power supply “often improperly matched to need.”
He added, “The result is compromised performance and an increased rate of equipment failure.”
The shortage of staff as well as lack of certification and training compounded the operational readiness problems, he said.
In an interview, Iglecias said they have cross-trained personnel to “maximize” them.
The water and wastewater division has 44 field staff members in treatment, collection and distribution operations.
There are nine staffers who are operationally certified but their levels of certification and number of certified staff fall short of the physical plant and regulatory requirement.
According to CUC’s structural evaluation and reorganization plan, the water and wastewater management combined repair and some maintenance functions.
The stipulated orders stated that the organizational evaluation and reorganization plan may build on previous organizational assessments and evaluation of CUC’s drinking water and wastewater functions.
The organizational evaluation and reorganization plan should also offer “a comprehensive assessment of organizational needs including procurement and accounting.”
