EPA said CUC was able to replace about 107 meters from May to June, but from June to July it only replaced 33 meters.
“CUC’s July 27, 2011 progress report on its metering program indicates that CUC continues to replace existing meters, although its pace has slowed,” EPA reported to the U.S. District Court of the Northern Marianas Islands.
EPA encouraged CUC to complete the meter installations at the unmetered accounts.
In CUC’s response submitted to the court, CUC general legal counsel Deborah Fisher disagreed with EPA’s characterization of its metering program.
From Feb. 21 to Aug. 15, CUC said it had accounted for approximately 336 unmetered and unregistered accounts, leaving 541 accounts left to be reconciled.
Fisher said there were 826 change-outs of failed meters and 47 change-outs of old style precision meters. “Unfortunately, CUC has experienced additional failures of the 2007 series meters, leaving our change-out balances at 461 units,” she reported.
CUC has changed-out 873 meters, an average of almost five meters per day or 25 meters per week, she said.
“While the overall number is influenced by new failures, CUC’s progress has been steady,” Fisher added.
In her report, Fisher said one byproduct of the water meter investigation is the “true-up” of metered accounts.
In mid-2010, CUC reported a customer count of 11,500 water meters on Saipan. Since then, the number has dropped to 7,997 accounts.
CUC said the reason for the drop can be attributed to the numerous meters installed by a third-party contractor in 2004 to 2005 as multi-family buildings were outfitted with a number of water meters equal to the number of electrical meters. Only one water service was used for those buildings, CUC added.
There has also been a drop in customer billings due to closed businesses and residential move-outs resulting from the depressed economy, CUC said.
The drop in metered accounts has placed continued financial pressure on CUC, which resulted in reduced revenue and a drop in monthly fixed charges that were assumed in the budgets and financial plans, it added.
