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BECQ takes up geothermal exploration application
The Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality’s Division of Coastal Resource Management will be holding a regulatory meeting today at their office in Gualo Rai to take up the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.’s application for a geothermal exploratory well permit.
If the division approves issuing the permit, CUC’s geothermal energy project will be closer to completing the permitting process.
“This meeting or hearing is for the DCRM major siting permit for the geothermal feasibility project. It is only one part of the ongoing permitting process to begin drilling. The contractor, 4-i’s CNMI, is the lead for permitting the project,” said CUC executive director Alan Fletcher said.
Maevelle Energy was awarded the contract in a joint venture with 4i’s CNMI LLC and Alexander Drilling of CNMI to assess the geothermal resource potential for Saipan.
Fletcher said that Maximino Simian, a registered geologist, will be in attendance for CUC at today’s meeting.
Fletcher explained that CUC has to go through the permitting stage first before it can progress on its geothermal explorations drilling in Gualo Rai.
“The local and federal permitting processes for this project are onerous. The DCRM permit is just one step in the process,” he said.
CUC board chair David J. Sablan earlier said that a federally funded digging intended to find additional water wells in Gualo Rai turned into a geothermal resource assessment when the contractor discovered increasing water temperatures as they dug deeper.
