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US, CNMI govt, CUC seek court approval for $4.6M task order for pipeline project
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the CNMI government, and the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. jointly asked the federal court yesterday to approve a task order with a total funding ceiling of $4.6 million related to the construction of the stalled CUC pipeline project by Gilbane Federal.
Gilbane Federal is a California-based construction company recently selected by the U.S. District Court for the NMI as Engineering and Environmental Management Company, which will have the power to expeditiously complete some CUC projects.
Gilbane Federal informed the parties that the company supports the court’s approval of the requested task order 2.
The joint request for task order 2 was signed by U.S. Department of Justice Environmental Enforcement Section senior attorney Bradley O’Brien for the U.S. government, attorney James Sirok for CUC, and assistant attorney general Teresita J. Sablan for the CNMI government.
According to Gilbane Federal’s task order summary sheet, the pipeline construction will begin work on March 5, 2015, and the completion date is July 1, 2016.
The funding amount under this project is $4.59 million—$1.6 million in CUC grant funding, $2.65 million in CNMI grant funding, and $342,096 in CUC’s court registry deposit. Last Feb. 5, the U.S. Department of the Interior approved an additional funding of $2.6 million to complete the pipeline project.
With the additional funds, DOI’s total funding for the pipeline project now balloons to $8.1 million since the project was initiated in 2010.
The pipeline project is among the many projects under stipulated order number 2. SO2 refers to court-mandated CUC projects that include the CUC pipeline; tank erection cleanout and testing; secondary containment; and used oil disposal, and others.
The oil pipeline project is an eight-inch aboveground receiving pipeline that delivers diesel fuel from the Mobil oil facility to CUC Power Plants 1 and 2 in Lower Base. EPA had stated that until the pipeline is properly repaired or replaced, it poses a threat to the adjacent ocean.
