DPL closes Kannat Tabla quarry

The Department of Public Lands closed off its Kannat Tabla quarry to prevent the Saipan Mayor’s Office and Hawaiian Rock Products from further extracting coral from the site after preliminary findings showed that the mayor’s office has no permit from DPL-and its predecessor Marianas Public Lands Authority-to use the quarry since at least 2005.

Moreover, despite its lack of permit, the Mayor’s Office entered into a two-year agreement with Hawaiian Rock in 2010 for the latter to extract 75,000 cubic yards of coral for free on the condition that 9,000 cubic yards of those will be delivered to the Mayor’s Office for its community projects.

Coral from the Kannat Tabla quarry have been used by the Saipan Mayor’s Office to cover potholes, improve rough roads, or expand parking spaces in areas where there are funerals.

A visit to the site yesterday shows a yellow “no trespassing” sign hanging from a metal chain at the entrance to the Kannat Tabla quarry, “by order of Department of Public Lands.”

Ray Cruz, DPL director of compliance, confirmed that DPL closed off the quarry in Kannat Tabla on April 25.

“It took us a little longer to catch it,” Cruz told Saipan Tribune.

Without proof that the Mayor’s Office secured an MPLA/DPL extended permit back in 2005, it would appear that for at least seven years it has been using the Kannat Tabla quarry without proper authorization.

With the government having difficulty paying its employees the full 80 hours every two weeks, and its pension agency and health center in extreme financial hardship, the government may have been losing out on revenue from quarry operations.

Cruz said DPL wants to know where and how the Mayor’s Office used 9,000 cubic yards of coral under its 2010 memorandum of agreement with Hawaiian Rock, and whether it has really secured from the former MPLA a temporary permit for the quarry site since it asked for an extension in 2005.

‘Not aware, don’t remember’

Henry Hofschneider, special adviser to Saipan Mayor Donald G. Flores, said yesterday that the Mayor’s Office has not been made aware that it lacks an MPLA and later on a DPL permit to use the Kannat Tabla quarry.

He also said at this point, the Mayor’s Office is asking DPL to reconsider its decision to close off the quarry from further use by the office.

Hofschneider added that the mayor provided a copy of his MOA with Hawaiian Rock.

“So if there was a problem with the Mayor’s Office related to the quarry operations, DPL should have let us know. But they didn’t say anything until now,” he said.

DPL’s Cruz said the Mayor’s Office should have checked whether it has a valid permit with MPLA or DPL. DPL’s compliance unit has only two inspectors.

It was during the time of former Saipan mayor Juan B. Tudela that the Mayor’s Office wrote an Oct. 31, 2005, letter to then MPLA commissioner Edward M. Deleon Guerrero, asking for an “extension” of “MPLA temporary permit no. 0325S for the quarry site located in Kannat Tabla.”

A few days later, on Nov. 7, 2005, Deleon Guerrero acknowledged receipt of Tudela’s Oct. 31, 2005, letter and said the extension request is “undergoing staff review.”

Those two letters are all that’s on file. MPLA was later abolished and changed to DPL.

DPL’s Cruz said yesterday that DPL couldn’t find any document showing that MPLA granted the extension request.

Deleon Guerrero, now executive director of the Commonwealth Ports Authority, said yesterday he doesn’t remember whether MPLA granted the extension request of former mayor Tudela.

Former DPL secretary Oscar M. Babauta, when asked for comment yesterday, said he is not aware either whether MPLA or DPL granted a permit to the Mayor’s Office to use the quarry site. Babauta became DPL secretary only in April 2010.

Acting DPL secretary Pete Itibus was off island yesterday, but he gave instruction to his office to allow the media to talk to DPL compliance director Ray Cruz on the matter.

Ponciano Corotan, Saipan manager of Hawaiian Rock Products, separately said yesterday that he personally did not know whether the Saipan Mayor’s Office had an MPLA or DPL permit when it signed a memorandum of agreement with Hawaiian Rock Products in March 2010.

Sweetheart deal?

On March 17, 2010, Saipan Mayor Donald Flores and Hawaiian Rock Products vice president Peter Errett Jr. signed a two-page memorandum of agreement which “provides for cooperation” between the two parties “for the mining of coral” in Kannat Tabla, specifically Lot 040 H 02.

The MOA was for two years, or until March 2012.

It cites that the mayor’s office has a major siting permit from the Coastal Resources Management, Permit # SMS-95-X-186 (Amended).

Under the MOA, the mayor’s office agrees to have Hawaiian Rock operate the Kannat Tabla quarry for the purpose of extracting coral.

“Hawaiian Rock will excavate and process coral for use on various construction sites on Saipan. In exchange for obtaining coral from the Kannat Tabla quarry, Hawaiian Rock Products will provide materials and services to the Mayor of Saipan at no cost.,” the MOA partly reads.

Hawaiian Rock is to extract 75,000 cubic yards of coral, valued at $168,750, from the site.

Of the 75,000 cubic yards to be extracted by Hawaiian Rock, 9,000 cubic yards valued at $67,500 were supposed to be provided by Hawaiian Rock to the Mayor’s Office.

Hofschneider said the Mayor’s Office doesn’t have the proper equipment and other resources to extract coral for its community projects so it entered into an MOA with Hawaiian Rock.

‘Overstated, understated’

Hawaiian Rock’s Corotan said they stopped extracting coral from the Kannat Tabla quarry in December 2011, three months ahead of the expiration of the MOA with the Mayor’s Office.

DPL’s Cruz said when they went to the quarry on April 25, they saw Mayor’s Office equipment at the site.

Hofschneider said the Mayor’s Office asked for a report from Hawaiian Rock as to the volume of corals it extracted and the volume it gave to the Mayor’s Office since the effective date of the MOA.

Corotan said Hawaiian Rock extracted a total of only 50,700 cubic yards, short of the 75,000 cubic yards it was supposed to remove under the MOA.

Instead of providing the Mayor’s Office with just 9,000 cubic yards, he said they ended up giving it at least 19,775 cubic yards.

“And that’s not even the real total because at first, we were not recording everything we were giving them, so the real figure is more than 19,775 cubic yards,” Corotan said.

Hofschneider said that based on their evaluation, the Mayor’s Office doesn’t believe it got 19,000-plus cubic yards from Hawaiian Rock.

“The Saipan Mayor’s Office is not convinced with the report of Hawaiian Rock that they gave us 19,000 cubic yards. That’s overstated,” he said.

Hofschneider also said, “Oftentimes, Hawaiian Rock would say it’s very busy so it cannot deliver corals but said they will later on.”

“But we ended up not getting any corals from them when we request it,” Hofschneider said.

Corotan, for his part, said the Mayor’s Office would request for corals any time it wanted, without regard to Hawaiian Rock’s own schedule. At the time, he said the company was busy with its projects, including portions of the Cross Islands Road project.

Both parties separately said they would provide copies of the actual report made by Hawaiian Rock about its extraction from the Kannat Tabla area.

Hofschneider said Hawaiian Rock managed to get free coral in exchange for providing the Mayor’s Office a portion of what Hawaiian Rock was able to extract from the site without paying a fee.

But Corotan said the Mayor’s Office also benefited from the agreement, much more than what was actually agreed upon.

“We used our equipment, our manpower, fuel, and other resources to comply with the MOA,” he added.

DPL’s Cruz said it would be up to acting DPL secretary Pete Itibus to decide what steps will be taken with regard to the matter, including whether to reprimand the Mayor’s Office and ask Hawaiian Rock for compensation for coral extraction.