CUC Acting Deputy Director for water and wastewater Capt. Robert Lorenz said the first bill was issued on July 14 to 10 substantial commercial wastewater customers.
Lorenz said CUC is billing these customers based on metered usage or estimated usage.
“They have production meters and they treated their own water so they have meter for reverse osmosis treatment process,” he said.
Earlier, CUC conducted an investigation to determine if commercial establishments fairly pay their share for disposing their wastewater.
CUC has been charging flat fees for sewer service to Mariana Resort & Spa, Palms Resort, Aqua Resort, Hyatt Regency Hotel, Fiesta Resort & Spa, Hafa Adai Hotel, Saipan World Resort, Grand Hotel, Pacific Island Club and Coral Ocean Point.
In its investigation, CUC reported the 10 hotels were paying flat fees for sewer services ranging from $25 to about $1,500 a month.
A report submitted to the Public Utilities Commission said CUC failed to identify any quantitative rationale for the amounts presently paid by any of the 10 customers.
“No one at CUC remembers why these accounts were wet up as flat fee accounts. We cannot find any documents or computer filed on the matter,” the report said.
Although, CUC has yet to receive any discrepancies in the billing Lorenz said they are ready to calibrate the meter of the hotels’ consumption on wastewater system usage.
“This is the first step that everybody got their bill and if they might suspect high or low in the billing calibration process of meter is part of the whole program,” he told the Variety.
CUC deputy director for water and wastewater Bruce Megarr already stressed that consultations with hotel managements is no longer necessary when CUC starts implementing the metering system.
Megarr said the CUC water and wastewater team talked with hotel management on several occasion about the plan to increase the rate.
“What we are asking them is to pay their equitable share, and they are willing to do that and we are willing to do our operation,” he said.
