CUC board demands aggressive leak repair

After being pounded by questions on perennial water leaks and feeling the brunt of criticism for a proposed reverse osmosis system in hearings with lawmakers last week, the Commonwealth Utilities Corps. board directed CUC management to come up with a plan of action and scope of work immediately and suggested emergency hires to expand repair crew to fix water leaks around the island.

At a board meeting Thursday, director Ignacio Perez said they were pounded by lawmakers on Wednesday and Monday who were “asking for specifics” about the reported 67 percent in unaccounted distributed water. He said he assured they would develop a monthly report to see the decreases in these unaccounted for percentages. Presenting without answers felt like, “standing there with your zipper open,” he said.

Perez asked for an “intelligence report” on these leaks and water manager Richard Wasser, called to address the board, said as far as the 67 percent number, the utility has complied data for March, April, and May on the total production of water wells and the total billing numbers from the accounting department. He said even though numbers are not totally accurate because meters were “not a 100 percent yet,” the estimates are “close” and the monthly average for unaccounted for water was “67 or 68 percent.”

“I told them we would provide them a monthly activity report am I going to be a liar?” said Perez.

Wasser said March was the earliest data they had and “numbers will get more accurate…the farther we go along with our meter replacement.” He said 14 well meters were replaced this month.

“As meters come together, we are going to be able to more accurately see the difference in our water balance. As we get the billing numbers, as the new meters register in billing, we should see it reflected in the accounts,” he said.

The month to month average may not be the most accurate, he said, but they should see a trend and see unaccounted for water to go down.

The board was criticized by a lawmaker last week for their apparent fondness for a proposed RO system to address water woes.

On Thursday, the board appeared to stand by its support for RO and one director suggested that if fixing leaks failed at addressing water issues, then this would “answer” the lawmaker’s concern about the real need of the RO system.

“Saipan really needs the RO system,” said director Albert Taitano. “I don’t know why the Legislature is not supporting it but they should support it.”

“We have been bombarded by leaks, leaks, leaks,” said director Joe Torres, urging that manpower be boosted in areas with leaks and asking questions on how many staff were on the repair program.

Wasser said they had a two-man crew working under an engineering project that found and repaired leaks, and on an operation side, they had a repair crew of about 10 staff. “They are swamped with the leaks that are visible” and responding to leaks that are reported through CUC’s call center, he said.

Wasser also said they hired one more staff member and are set to hire three more. “We are not turning anyone away,” he said, on recent hiring efforts. “It’s the best we can do with the staff that we can have.”

“This Legislature don’t want to wait,” said Torres.

Torres suggested “emergency hires” of three crews fixing leaks north, central, and to the south of Saipan daily.

If this crew can go out there and “attack” and “we still don’t have water, then I guess our answer is supplied,” Torres said.

He suggested emergency hires of a 10-man crew with equipment to search for leaks.

Acting executive director Gary Camacho stressed that they’d need to “outsource” the project and that it had to be “large scale” with manpower and equipment and professionals and experts not only for quick identification of leaks but for development of staff.

“I don’t expect any debate,” said director Eric San Nicolas, adding he wanted information on scope of work for the project and plan of action “yesterday.”

“That was my biggest frustration the last two hearings,” he said, adding that they needed to be proactive. “If you are getting paid a hundred grand, you better be doing more than 100 grand. I expect that from every manager” and the executive director’s office. “If someone is not doing it, by god, we need disciplinary action to be taken.”

He also went on to say they’ve “moved mountains since we’ve reorganized the board” and urged management to maximize grant money so “we don’t have to reach into the pockets of taxpayers.”

Stressing for a “timeframe” and an “aggressive approach” on the issue, Torres also complained about how lawmakers and the local newspapers appeared to have more information than the board on issues like these and urged management to work together, after water engineer John Riegel referred to a “white paper” he wrote on water issues and said was distributed to the board but that Torres claimed he did not have.

“Let’s work as a team. If we are separated, then we have a problem. We have more info going out in the papers than us sitting us in this board,” Torres said. “Please have the courtesy. I don’t like to criticize. We’ve been lectured last two days up there. The last time I heard a lecture was in high school.”

“I just want to work together…let’s have one road and one direction,” he said.

Riegel assured he could have a scope of work for the board by the end of this week.