CUC completes $4.8M water and wastewater projects

Commonwealth Utilities Corp. executive director Abe Utu Malae and acting governor Eloy Inos announced yesterday the completion of three major water and wastewater projects worth over $4.8 million.

The two led the ribbon-cutting rites for the formal completion of the rehabilitation of the Sadog Tasi wastewater treatment plant, the Saipan well isolation project, and the initial phases of the installation of a 6-inch waterline project.

For the Sadog Tasi project, Malae said that CUC used $2.476 million from an Office of Insular Affairs grant and an American Recovery Reinvestment Act grant to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The Sadog Tasi treatment plant was built in 1993 and has the capacity to treat more than three million gallons of wastewater a day. It serves almost 20,000 residents from Chalan Laulau in the south to the Marianas Resort in the north. At present, the treatment plant gets less than half of the 3 million gallon load, Malae said.

The project entailed replacing “the complicated, difficult-to-repair, energy-intensive fine-bubble aeration system with simpler and more efficient floating mechanical aerators.” With these floating aerators, Malae said CUC can now operate only the number of treatment basins required based on the incoming flow. This will allow the plant to use less electricity than before, reducing CUC’s operating expenses.

CUC used a $1.8 million ARRA grant to EPA for the Saipan well isolation project. This project removed 25 wells from the “direct feed” in the Kagman, Obyan, San Vicente, As Lito, and Koblerville areas. Direct feed is where a well pumps directly to customers’ homes instead of to a tank first.

Eliminating direct feed improves the reliability of the system, Malae said, because tanks are located at high elevations and the pressure for water distribution is provided by gravity instead of a well pump.

For the installation of a six-inch distribution line along Isa Drive, CUC spent $482,767, also funded by ARRA. This project involved connecting hundreds of customers to the Capital Hill water storage tank.

The contractor for the three projects is GPPC Inc., represented by Diego Blanco in yesterday’s ceremonies. Construction managements included JC Tenorio Engineers & Associates, Hofschneider Engineering, and SSFM, Inc.

According to Inos, the completion of the three projects affirms CUC’s continuing efforts to seek ways to provide higher standards of service to the community. “This is our commitment to the accountable use of available federal funds for important infrastructure projects,” he said.

Carl L. Goldstein, senior project manager of EPA-Pacific, was elated with CUC’s progress. “The Sadog Tasi project will provide important and needed improvements at the wastewater treatment facility that will help improve water quality in the Saipan Lagoon, and will better protect marine life as well as public health. The Saipan Well Isolation project will make the water distribution system more efficient, put more water in the pipes, and thereby help increase the number of people getting 24-hour water on Saipan,” he told Saipan Tribune.