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DOI issues $3.9M authorization to proceed with CUC pipeline project
DOI funding for pipeline project now reaches $12M
The U.S. Department of the Interior has issued an authorization to proceed in the amount of $3,887,161 for the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.’s pipeline construction project.
DOI grants management specialist Keith W. Aughenbaugh notified CNMI Capital Improvement Projects administrator Virginia Villagomez on Tuesday of the Office of Insular Affair’s formal authorization to proceed (ATP) with the CUC pipeline construction project.
In the ATP, Aughenbaugh stated that OIA has reviewed the scope of work dated Jan. 14, 2016, requesting additional funding to complete the pipeline project.
Aughenbaugh said OIA finds the project to be in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act, Council on Environmental Quality Regulations, and DOI NEPA Regulations, among other regulations.
The $3.9 million additional money brings to a total of $11,972,495.50 DOI funding since the pipeline project was initiated in 2010, according to court documents.
Assistant attorney general Teresita J. Sablan, counsel for the CNMI government, yesterday informed the U.S. District Court for the NMI about DOI’s issuance of $3.9 million in ATP.
These funds, Sablan said, will be available for the pipeline project and supporting scope of work and will not be reprogrammed without the mutual agreement of the parties—U.S. and CNMI governments, and CUC.
Sablan said DOI has yet to issue two ATPs for the remaining $1.1 million of the CNMI’s obligation: Cleanup, inspection, and repair of CUC Tank 103 ($730,614) and for construction management by Engineering Environmental Management Company ($382,225).
DOI is expected to issue the two ATPs within the next week two weeks.
Last Jan. 29, DOI approved the CNMI government’s request for additional $5 million in funding for CUC’s Stipulated Order 2 projects.
Pursuant to a federal court order, the CNMI government is required to deposit into the court’s registry or file a notice with the court of DOI’s ATP for funding SO2 projects by Feb. 1, 2016.
The parties stipulated to extend the deadline to Feb. 29, 2016. The court approved the stipulation.
The parties agreed to extend again the deadline to file its notice of ATP for the pipeline construction to March 2, 2016, and its notice of ATPs for Engineering Environmental Management Company construction management and Tank 103 to March 18, 2016.
According to a joint stipulation signed by the parties’ counsels, the Army Corps review of the scopes of work and recommendation to issue the ATPs has taken longer than estimated, and that the ATPs were not issued by the extended deadline.
DOI issued the first ATP authorizing $3.9 million for the pipeline construction on Tuesday, March 1, 2016.
The counsels said to allow additional time for the review of the scopes of the work and for the CNMI to obtain the remaining ATPs, the parties agreed to extend the deadline to file notice of the ATP for the pipeline project to Wednesday, March 2, and to file notice of the remaining ATPs to March 18, 2016.
The oil pipeline project is an 8-inch aboveground receiving pipeline that delivers diesel fuel from the Mobil oil facility to CUC Power Plants 1 and 2 in Lower Base. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had stated that until the pipeline is properly repaired or replaced, it poses a threat to the adjacent ocean.
The SO2 projects refer to the decommissioning of the existing CUC pipeline and smart pigging of the new CUC pipeline; waste management for Power Plants 1 and 2 on Saipan and Rota power plant; engineering and design of facility drainage improvements for Power Plants 1 and 2; soil cleanup for Power Plant 1, and SO2 construction management by EEMC.
