CUC officials last week told the Saipan legislative delegation’s Public Utilities and Infrastructure Committee that they don’t have the required millions of dollars to comply with the deadlines set by the orders.
“If what [the federal court] has done in the past is any indication, the judge might garnish local funds” to pay CUC’s penalties, said Sablan, who chairs the committee.
“I am worried about the penalties to be imposed on CUC,” she added.
CUC has prepared 11 applications for federal stimulus funds so it can implement its improvement projects, but Sablan said she doesn’t know “if they’ve been submitted to the feds already.”
She said CUC has imposed higher water rates, a portion of which will go to fund compliance, “but that has not happened.”
She noted that $4 million in federal grant set aside for the long overdue repair project at the Agingan Point sewage treatment plant was reprogrammed by the administration for power generation.
“Water and wastewater are also public health concerns and should be just as much a priority as keeping the lights on,” she said. “In attempting to solve a problem without really examining the problem we end up making it worse.”
Under the stipulated orders, CUC’s wastewater plants and collection system, public water system, power plants and oil transfer pipeline must comply with federal standards.
On Guam, the federal court appointed Gershman, Brickner & Bratton Inc. as receiver to bring the island’s Ordot dump into compliance with federal regulations.
Sablan earlier told the U.S. Department of Justice that CUC’s ability to comply was doubtful “particularly under the present management and political conditions.”
CUC, she said, “is a grossly dysfunctional, extremely politicized, frequently noncompliant and generally mismanaged entity” that must be placed under federal receivership.
