She said the system is required by the newly implemented groundwater rule which took effect on Dec. 1 last year.
As part of the semi-annual ground water monitoring required by DEQ, Yelin said CUC laboratory collected 121 samples from the Saipan well fields for analysis of nitrate, total coliform, conductivity, pH, temperature, hardness, chloride and total dissolved solids.
“Most of the wells not sampled were inactive, with the exception of Duenas well and the Maui 1 shaft,” she said.
Yelin also reported to CUC deputy director for water and wastewater Bruce Megarr the result of the safe drinking water total coliform samples on Saipan, Tinian and Rota for November and December.
She said for the second consecutive month, one of the samples collected from Saipan’s public water system contained total coliform.
But, she added, “this system achieved the goal of 100 percent compliance with the total coliform rule during November 2009.”
However, she noted improper procedure and invalid samples in the same month.
On Nov. 17, she said two samples were invalidated since they were collected during a power outage.
Three other samples collected on Nov. 24 were invalidated as a result of the CUC laboratory staff interpreting the results before the full 18 hours of incubation, she said.
Last December on Saipan, Yelin said all four total coliform safe drinking water samples could be attributed to problems within the distribution system.
But the Saipan public water system was in compliance of the total coliform rule during the period, she added.
On Tinian and Rota, Yelin said routine samples taken in November contained total coliform.
In December, Tinian and Rota complied with the total coliform rule.
