He said CUC’s contract with its chlorine supplier will end in July but they prefer to wait until the expiration of the contract to renegotiate or begin a new procurement.
CUC, he added, would like EPA to provide contract language it finds acceptable.
He said CUC prefers not to negotiate with a chlorine supplier without first being sure that the new language will be approved.
According to Malae, federal stipulated order 1 stated that “CUC shall develop and enter into a long-term contract, for at least one year, for chlorine shipments adequate to carry out the chlorination, disinfection requirements described in this stipulated order.”
The order did not require that the chlorine contract lists specific amounts of chlorine that CUC must purchase, he said.
But it requires CUC to enter into a chlorine contract which is adequate to carry out the chlorine disinfection requirements, Malae said in an email interview.
“I will point out that chlorination is one of the most successful of the stipulated order deliverables and it is just so ironic that the EPA is making us jump through additional hoops that are not part of the order,” he said.
“CUC will be following up on this issue to see if we can have updates for the status conference,” he added.
In a recent hearing in federal court, Malae said Judge James Carter expressed satisfaction with the report on the availability of chlorine on island.
But Carter also advised CUC to stock up on chlorine supply ahead of typhoon season.
