CUC to award sole-source contract for water filters

The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. is expecting to award a sole-source procurement contract to install 10 granulated activated carbon system units to filter CUC’s drinking water and remove chemicals that cause contamination.

CUC executive director Gary P. Camacho in his status report disclosed that the sole-source order for the granulated activated carbon systems (GAC) were agreed upon following the conclusion of court proceedings last January before U.S. District Court for the NMI designated Judge David O. Carter.

Camacho submitted the status report to CUC counsel assistant attorney general Jose Mafnas Jr. last Wednesday. Mafnas, in turn, submitted the report to the District Court last Friday.

As of this date, Camacho said, CUC has had to shift its financial plans from CUC cash reserves, which they no longer have available due to impacts from COVID-19 and decimation of the tourism industry to the CNMI, to a request for support from federal funds.

He said this resulted in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency agreeing and approving the use of funds from CUC’s most recently approved grant pool for 2019.

Camacho said the original estimate for the 10 GAC individual units was $459,000 which when the water sample was sent for pilot testing.

He said the price, however, increased to $778,000 for the procurement of 10 duplex units, the assistance of a technician for installation and training, and for the cost of site construction and installation.

Camacho said the order for the GAC units is pending as of last Monday, April 20.

He said the procurement document is currently routing for budget certification by CUC’s chief financial officer.

The executive director said they expect to award the project to a company through a sole-source procurement.

He said the expected delivery date of the units to CUC is about 20 to 24 weeks after issuance of the notice to proceed.

“Installation of the units would take about three to four weeks. The expected delivery date is mid to late September with installation occurring by the end of October,” Camacho said.

Last month, Carter ordered an additional testing of water samples from CUC’s As Terlaje tank to monitor concentration levels of chemicals that may contaminate CUC’s drinking water and pose a threat to public health.

Carter ordered one more test to be conducted in mid-to-late June so he will receive such test on or before July 8, 2020.

Mafnas informed Carter that the final results from testing of water samples drawn from As Terlaje tank last Feb. 4 showed that perflourooctane sulfonates (PFOS) was at 25 parts per trillion and that perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) was a non-defect.

EPA’s health advisory level is 70 parts per trillion in a water system.

Last Jan. 8, CUC issued a health advisory that it had detected in some areas on Saipan levels of contaminants—PFOSand PFOA—that exceeded EPA’s health advisory level of 70 parts per trillion in a water system.