Guam's fined too

I don't follow their day-to-day travails, so I was surprised to learn that the Guam Waterworks Authority is subject to a stipulated order with the Environmental Protection Agency much like ours.

Nothing new for the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation. It is good news to see all the management positions they've been advertising.

This is the text of the EPA release on GWA:

HONOLULU -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today penalized the Guam Waterworks Authority $57,000 for failing to fully comply with a stipulated order to make improvements to its drinking water and wastewater systems.

GWA was penalized for the continued failure to meet a December 31, 2008 deadline for completing a condition assessment to determine the structural stability and soundness of steel tank water reservoirs that need immediate assessment, and for failure to complete a condition assessment of the remaining steel tank water reservoirs by December 31, 2009. Some of the tanks have severely corroded exterior walls, roofs, or valves, or are missing tank parts.

“The penalties are a consequence of GWA’s continued failure to meet the stipulated order requirements and complete the necessary improvements to provide reliable drinking water service to residents,” said Alexis Strauss, Water Division director for the EPA’s Pacific Southwest region. “These water storage tanks are a critical component of the GWA water system, as they help ensure water pressure and adequate flow throughout the system and prevent contaminants from entering the water supply.”

The condition assessment of GWA water tanks was to be performed in two phases. High priority tanks were to be assessed by December 2008, and all other tanks by December 2009. Although GWA did an initial, visual inspection of all tanks in 2008, it has not completed the required, full structural assessments of any tanks to date. The $57,000 penalty assessed today is the second imposed by EPA in response to GWA’s failure to complete the tank assessment. On August 17, 2009, EPA assessed a penalty of $19,000 for GWA’s noncompliance with its duty to assess its high priority tanks through that date.

“Many of the tanks located around the island are in poor condition which underscores the need to complete the assessment and address the deficiencies as required by the court order,” said John McCarroll, Pacific Islands Office manager for EPA’s Pacific Southwest region.

The order provides for penalties if established deadlines are not met and for additional penalties until the work is complete. It also requires upgrades and improvements to GWA’s drinking water and wastewater infrastructure to ensure the proper management, treatment and delivery of safe drinking water, and proper wastewater treatment.

Let the fines begin

The Environmental Protection Agency has dropped a $29,000 fine on the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation for not following the terms of a year-old Stipulated Order (pdf).

EPA warned in an Oct. 16 email (pdf) that "Our most urgent concern is for CUC to contain its oil spills, oil containers and spill response capabilities immediately before another typhoon threatens the company's facilities and operations." I guess they meant it.

According to the EPA letter, CUC had accumulated $404,000 in penalties under Stipulated Order One (pdf) as of Oct. 9 and $230,000 pursuant to Stipulated Order Two as of Oct. 16. At that time, the fine for failure to submit a Facility Response Plan was $10,000.

Different penalties accrue at different rates, so we can't assume that the $634,000 in stipulated penalties have almost tripled; we can assume they've grown. A lot.

We can look at all of that and say the glass is half-empty, but wait. Let's look at the fine as a shot across CUC's bow: EPA is signaling that it is very serious indeed about the Dec. 31 deadlines like the financial plan, and that it won't be put off like the Legislature. Still, I give the Administration and CUC a lot of credit for ending years of dithering and agreeing to the Stipulated Orders.

Here's the text of EPA's press release (Too lazy to rewrite, I'll use bold to highlight):

EPA fines CUC for failing to submit facility oil spill response plan
$29,000 penalty follows missed deadline stipulated in the March 2009 order

HONOLULU – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today fined the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. $29,000 for failing to meet the requirements of a stipulated order seeking to reform and bring into compliance CUC’s five power plants and an oil transfer pipeline.

Specifically, the penalty is for failing to submit a satisfactory facility response plan as outlined in the order.

The order required CUC to submit a facility response plan for its Lower Base power plants by July 9, 2009. The plan was submitted by CUC. However, on September 17, 2009, the EPA disapproved the initial submitted plan and provided CUC with 20 days to correct and resubmit the plan. CUC did not resubmit a corrected plan to the EPA.

“U.S. EPA expects the CUC to immediately fulfill its obligations under the stipulated order to ensure that a facility response plan is in place at its main power plant,” said Daniel Meer, the EPA’s assistant Superfund director for the Pacific Southwest region. “The potential for oil releases from their facilities and harm to environment is significant and CUC must implement steps to prevent and prepare for such discharges or face additional penalty demands."

CUC owns five power plants on the islands of Saipan and Rota. The facilities and an oil transfer pipeline on Saipan have a history of releases of oil. The EPA has found that CUC has caused discharges of harmful quantities of oil into the nearshore waters and shorelines.

In addition to past oil releases and the ongoing threats of oil releases from these facilities, CUC has failed to prepare and implement oil spill prevention plans for each of its five power plants and a facility response plan at its main power plant in Saipan, which is near Tanapag Harbor.


A facility response plan is required by the EPA for facilities which store over 1 million gallons of oil and have potential to cause significant and substantial harm to the environment. The plans must document that a facility has the necessary resources and equipment to respond to a worst case discharge at the facility, such as those that can be caused by typhoons and earthquakes. The plan also requires the facility to conduct drills, exercises and training to ensure prompt and effective response to small, medium and large oil spills.


The stipulated order is one of two that was entered by the Court on March 11, 2009. The other order covers water and wastewater issues at the CUC drinking water and wastewater facilities.

CUC's penalty phase

The Commonwealth Utilities Corporation *may* be facing $630,000 in penalties from the Environmental Protection Agency. Quick, who didn't see this coming?

I use the word may because the Saipan Tribune is incredibly vague about its source. "In a Sept. 30, 2009 conference with EPA, it was disclosed that that the United States is seriously concerned with CUC's lack of compliance with many important provisions in stipulated orders 1 and 2," the article says. We'll just have to assume a letter or report on the conference is being referenced, because the article is full of 'EPA said'(s).

According to the story "There are a total of 13 provisions that were not met by CUC under the two stipulated orders. EPA described the actions as “alarming.”"

At the time they were reported, I thought that 'Stipulated Order Number One' and 'Stipulated Order Number Two' amounted to de facto federalization of CUC. (Sorry, I couldn't find links to the orders at the U.S. Department of Justice, the Northern Marianas District Court or the EPA.)

The CNMI had been stalling EPA for years, so I was optimistic when Gov. Benigno R. Fitial reportedly said he agreed to the stipulations because "We decided to fix the problem instead."

Then, in June, CUC Deputy Director Bruce Megarr told the Public Utilities and Infrastructure Committee the utility was unlikely to meet EPA deadlines. Uh, oh. Here we go again.

The timing is interesting, because the Governor 'owns' CUC's problems after endless Emergency Declarations.

Eureka!

I was looking in all the wrong places. The Saipan Chamber of Commerce has a treasure trove of Public Utilities Commission documents available for download. They include Stipulated Order Number One and Stipulated Order Number Two.

An October 16, 2009 letter signed by EPA Project Coordinator Michael Lee and On-Scene Coordinator Michelle Rogow seems to be the source for the Tribune article.

(Time to rewrite this, but I'm out of time. Also, I may have to rethink my opinion that the Chamber just isn't relevant to small business owners.)