Acting CUC Executive Director Abe Utu Malae said a contractor is removing oil from Tank 104 at Power Plant 1, the main source of electricity on Saipan.
“In addition, hundreds of drums of waste oil from Power Plants 1, 2 and 4 are within the berm. This oil is transferred to a 42,000 gallon tank,” he said in an e-mail interview.
The used oil will be transported off-island.
“This ‘time and time again’ issue as far as waste oil is concerned is no longer,” Malae added.
Last March, the U.S. government warned it could take over CUC if it failed to comply with the federal stipulated orders in connection with the agency’s violations of the Clean Water Act and three separate EPA administrative orders governing operation of the plants.
CUC must dispose 400,000 gallons of used oil at the public-owned power plants.
Failure to meet federal requirements could subject CUC and the CNMI government to substantial fines and charges and, “in the extreme, to a federal takeover of their finances,” Gov. Benigno R. Fitial earlier said.
CUC has already incurred over $4 million in penalties for failure to comply with the stipulated orders.
