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DEQ: Noisy generators operate sans permit
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Posted on Oct 21 2008
The Division of Environmental Quality had asked the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. to help resolve a complaint regarding noisy generators of a building being used as staff housing for employees of Hyatt Regency Saipan.
The generators, DEQ said, have no permits to operate.
Hyatt said they are already aware of this but could not comment as of press time since the person in charge, Human Resource director Josephine Mesta, is off island on official business. Hyatt’s general manager Nick Nishikawa is also out of the CNMI.
DEQ director Frank M. Rabauliman recently wrote CUC executive director Antonio Muña about a complaint regarding the noise and air emissions brought about by the generators.
Rabauliman’s letter told Muna that the staff house is currently running its own on-site power generation system because it has been disconnected from the CUC grid.
DEQ said it responded to the complaint and its staff found that residents of the staff house as well as residents of other properties in the area “are being exposed to noise levels that are in excess of certain accepted standards for residential areas.”
Rabauliman said the residents are also being exposed to levels of air emissions, which he said still has to be determined.
He said this is primarily because the staff housing generators are not currently permitted to operate.
The letter, which was dated Oct. 8, was copy furnished to Hyatt GM Nishikawa, the Zoning Office and Coastal Resources Management Office.
CRM faxed the letter to Saipan Tribune yesterday.
Muña and Rabauliman could not be contacted for comments because they were reportedly at important meetings.
“We are requesting CUC’s assistance in resolving this matter by looking into the possibility of reconnecting the Hyatt staff housing facility to island power, to eliminate the exposure of residents and neighbors to potentially hazardous levels of noise and air emissions,” Rabauliman wrote.
He said DEQ is concerned that similar problems may exist in other areas of Saipan at this time.
“We are requesting CUC’s assistance in auditing all currently disconnected facilities and developing a prioritized reconnection list based on noise and air emissions hazard,” Rabauliman told Muña.
