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‘CUC is taking action to stop spread of oil contamination at Rota power plant’
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Posted on Aug 30 2011
The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. said it is committed to preventing any further oil contamination at the Rota power plant.
CUC legal counsel Deborah E. Fisher, in CUC’s reply to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s report filed in federal court last week, asserted that the utilities agency has taken immediate action to address the issues at Rota power plant.
“CUC appreciates EPA’s involvement and testing at the Rota plant, and has been in regular communication with the on-scene coordinator,” said Fisher in the reply filed Saturday in the U.S. District Court for the NMI.
EPA legal counsel Bradley O’Brien earlier disclosed that EPA investigated the Rota power plant this month for contamination of oil and cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs.
O’Brien had said that samples are currently at the laboratory awaiting analysis, but that a sheen was found along the shoreline adjacent to the facility. Oil—most likely diesel—was present in almost all of the soil borings and groundwater wells installed at the facility, he added.
In CUC’s response, Fisher said the utilities firm is awaiting two new Cummins engines that were ordered last year to replace the old Rota power engines. The engines, she said, were delivered this week to Saipan.
Fisher added that CUC has repaired the leaking roof at the plant and a leaking expansion cooling water tank in the power plant building. CUC is also repairing spare water pumps on Saipan to replace the leaking cooling water pump.
CUC is also in the process of doing an emergency procurement for an oily water separator and will be sending a two-compartment tank from Saipan, Fisher said.
“These immediate actions are the first steps CUC has taken to address the concerns raised by EPA,” Fisher said.
She noted that CUC executive director Abe Utu Malae met last week with power plant staff and Rota management by teleconference to address concerns raised by EPA about the Rota plant. Issues of an administrative and managerial nature are also being addressed, she added.
