Previous Story
DOI funding for CUC pipeline now at $8.1M
DOI approves additional $2.6M
The U.S. Department of the Interior has approved an additional funding of $2.65 million to complete the construction of the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.’s stalled pipeline project.
With the additional funds, DOI’s total funding for the pipeline project now balloons to $8.1 million since the project was initiated in 2010.
The CNMI government, through assistant attorney general Teresita J. Sablan, notified the U.S. District Court for the NMI on Friday about Office of Insular Affairs’ formal notice of the award of $2,648,082 for the pipeline construction project.
The project is one of many under stipulated order number 2. SO2 refers to court-mandated CUC projects that include the CUC pipeline; tank erection cleanout and testing; secondary containment; and used oil disposal, and others.
Pursuant to the federal court’s orders, the CNMI was required to deposit $2.8 million into the District Court’s registry or file a notice of DOI’s authorization to proceed for funding SO2 projects by Feb. 13, 2015.
Sablan said the $2.6 million will be available for the Engineering and Environmental Management Company to use for the pipeline project.
Sablan said the CNMI will not reprogram the funds without the mutual agreement of the parties: the CNMI and U.S. governments, CUC, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
As for the remaining balance of $151,918, Sablan said the CNMI submitted a project proposal for contract management and administration and that DOI is in the process of reviewing the proposal.
In a joint stipulation also filed Friday, the parties asked the court to extend the deadline for the remaining $151,918 to Feb. 17, 2015, to give more time for the DOI review process and for the CNMI to obtain the authorization to proceed with the project proposal for construction management and administration.
Aside from Sablan for the CNMI, the other signatories were U.S. Department of Justice Environmental Enforcement Section senior attorney Bradley R. O’Brien and CUC counsel James S. Sirok.
OIA’s grants management specialist Keith W. Aughenbaugh informed CNMI CIP administrator Virginia Villagomez about the authorization to proceed with the project to devote $2.6 million on Feb. 5, 2015.
The pipeline project was initiated in 2010 at a cost of $1.8 million. Due to numerous problems that contributed to the project’s delay, the cost rose to $6 million in 2013.
The oil pipeline project is an eight-inch aboveground receiving pipeline that delivers diesel fuel from the Mobil oil facility to CUC Power Plants 1 and 2 in Lower Base. EPA had stated that until the pipeline is properly repaired or replaced, it poses a threat to the adjacent ocean.
The U.S. and the CNMI governments recently agreed to extend the deadline for the CNMI to comply with the $2.8 million funding requirement for some CUC projects.
Under a settlement agreement between EPA, CUC, and the CNMI government, the CNMI must deposit $2.8 million into the U.S. District Court for the NMI’s registry or file a notice with the court of the Department of the Interior’s authorization to proceed for funding SO2 projects by Feb. 1, 2015.
The parties, through their respective counsels, stated that the U.S. government, including EPA and DOI’s Office of Insular Affairs, the CNMI, and CUC, along with the Engineering and Environmental Management Company have been working cooperatively and meeting regularly to obtain an authorization to proceed from DOI to devote $2.8 million to SO2 projects.
