Pump failure results in Navy Hill water outage

The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. is working to replace two failed deep well pumps that provide water to customers in Chinatown, Upper Navy Hill, and Upper Miha.

The pump failure was detected on Tuesday morning during a routine check of the Calhoun reservoir on Navy Hill performed by Water Watch personnel who observed the water levels in the tank were low. The resulting inspection of the on-site pump house revealed neither of the two pumps were functioning.

Operations personnel began removing the pumps Tuesday morning using cranes to extract the nearly 600 feet of pipe for each pump. The pumps are used in two of the deepest wells CUC operates on Saipan and the depth adds to the difficulty of the retrieval and replacement process.

“These are high production wells and they are very deep. It takes us a half-day to remove one of the pumps and another half-day to put the new one back in there,” said Water Operations supervisor Bernard Keremius.

CUC expects one of the two pumps to return to service Tuesday evening. Work on the second pump will resume Wednesday morning with crews expected to finish the replacement and reinstallation Wednesday evening.
Service to the area will remain limited as the pumps feed each of the 500,000-gallon tanks that service the area over the next few days

Service restored in Dandan
Regular water service has been restored in Dandan after a pump failure resulted in limited service over the weekend. CUC water crews first responded to customer calls about a water outage in Dandan Friday evening. The resulting inspection of the 500,000-gallon Dandan reservoir revealed water levels had dropped to three feet inside the tank.

Crews identified a failed pump near the airport as the source of the problem. The pump is an integral part of the system that treats and pushes water from nearby wells to the Dandan tank.

While the pump was out of service, water storage levels in the Dandan tank could not replenished. CUC crews completed the replacement of the pump and motor Saturday afternoon; however, it took approximately 36 hours before water levels in the Dandan tank were restored to the 17 feet necessary to provide quality service to CUC customers in the area.

For more information about the outages in Dandan or Navy Hill, contact the CUC Water Division at (670) 322-5030/31 or the Call Center at 664-4CUC (4282). (CUC)