‘Rydlyme was used to clean floor, disposed of on Tinian’

Three of the four witnesses presented yesterday by the U.S. government in the ongoing jury trial of Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Villagomez testified that Rydlyme was used only to clean the floor, was never used at Tinian’s power plant, and was instead disposed of.

The U.S. government called to the witness stand former CUC water treatment supervisor Joaquin Reyes Lizama, Tinian Telesource power plant manager Jeffrey Barr, Tinian Telesource power plant quality control and fuel handler Miguel R. Viches, and CUC purchasing specialist Vincent M. Cepeda.

During direct examination by assistant U.S. attorney Eric O’Malley, Lizama said most of the Rydlyme was used to clean the floor after the chemical ate up or damaged certain power plant equipment on Saipan.

Lizama retired from CUC in 2000. He served as water treatment supervisor at CUC’s power generation division for five years.

The witness said the first time he saw Rydlyme was in 1998 when the product arrived at the power plant in two kinds of containers. Lizama said he did not make a request for the chemical.

Lizama said he didn’t know about Rydlyme and they only got to use the chemical a couple of months later, when William J. Powell came to the power plant.

Powell is from Rydlyme Pacific Inc. in Hawaii, the distributor of Rydlyme for ISLA Marianas Sales and Blue Pacific.

James Santos owns ISLA, while his wife, Joaquina, owns Blue Pacific. The husband-and-wife couple are co-defendants of Villagomez.

Lizama recalled that Powell entered the conference room, took a glass of Rydlyme, and put a certain amount of the chemical on a penny. He said Rydlyme appeared to remove the copper-like color of the penny.

Despite the demonstration, Lizama said he was not convinced that CUC should use Rydlyme on the power engines.

Lizama said they actually tried Rydlyme once, but the mechanic complained that it damaged certain equipment in the power plant. After that, they never used Rydlyme, Lizama said, adding that he saw some staff using the chemical to clean the floor.

He agreed with O’Malley that more gallons of Rydlyme arrived at the power plant, although he did not ask for the product.

Lizama said they later used Rydlyme after Powell came again to the power plant to flush radiators in engines one to eight.

During questioning by Villagomez’s counsel, David J. Lujan, the retired CUC employee said they used to use a Japanese chemical before Rydlyme.At the time, they had a water chemical engineer under contract with CUC, he said.

“The engineer knows chemical but he disagrees with Rydlyme,” Lizama said.

When shown a document, Lizama recognized it as a request voucher dated June 9, 1998, to purchase 2,000 gallons of Rydlyme for the power plant’s cooling system.

Lizama said it was Joaquin “Jack” Cruz of CUC’s Procurement and Supply Section who prepared the request voucher, also called acquisition justification.

He agreed with Lujan that at the time, he had two bosses in the Power Generation Division —William Borja and “the real big boss” Jose S. Demapan.

The witness agreed that Demapan can make the request to purchase Rydlyme but he pointed out that the water treatment section is the that who is supposed to make the request and not Demapan.

Shown a document, Lizama recognized it as an acquisition justification for 1,100 gallons of Rydlyme dated June 3, 1999. He said it was the acting manager for power generation, William Borja, who requested the voucher and that it was Cruz who prepared it.

Lizama identified another acquisition justification for 2,000 gallons of Rydlyme as requested by Demapan and prepared by Cruz. Lizama told Lujan it was the first time he saw the document.

He agreed with Lujan that he was not involved in the requisition for Rydlyme and how the product was ordered by CUC.

Tinian Telesource’s Barr said he has been involved with the Tinian power plant since 1987.

Telesource runs the new CUC power plant on Tinian. The old CUC power plant was shut down after the new power plant was put online in February 1999.

Barr said he was working for CUC as its power plant manager for Tinian in 1998 when he became aware of the shipment of Rydlyme to their island. Barr said he was not aware if there was any request from the Tinian power plant to have the product.

Barr said they never used Rydlyme because their power engines at the time were relatively new.

He agreed with Lujan during cross-examination that when the Rydlyme arrived on Tinian, it was not accompanied with documentation.

Barr said he told his then assistant manager, Jess Cruz, that if they don’t need the chemical they should ship them back to Saipan.

He agreed with Lujan that Cruz may have known about the Rydlyme delivery because Cruz was overseeing the old power plant.

Tinian Telesouce’s Viches, the former power plant operator for Tinian, said he saw drums of Rydlyme arrive at the power plant either in 1998 or 1999 and that they were eventually stored in the warehouse in the old power plant.

“I don’t know who requested [the chemical], I was only the operator,” he said.

After several years, some of the Rydlyme were disposed of around 2004, Viches said.

He said they emptied the Rydlyme drums and the liquid was mixed with water and either thrown to the ground or put in the used oil storage for shipment to Guam.

Viches said it was then CUC resident director Greg Castro who ordered the disposal of the Rydlyme.

After completing his cross-examination, Lujan huddled for about a minute with lawyers Ramon Quichoco and Victorino Torres, counsel of Joaquina Santos and James Santos respectively. Quichoco and Torres then told the court that they have no questions for Viches.

CUC purchasing specialist Cepeda testified that he saw maintenance workers using Rydlyme to clean the floor in the incinerator area.

When asked by O’Malley if he saw Rydlyme being used to clean the radiators at the power plant, Cepeda replied, “No, sir.”

Cepeda said that in 2007 power generation manager Almondo Santos instructed him to prepare the papers to request the purchase Rydlyme.

Shown a document by O’Malley dated Sept. 11, 2007, the witness recognized his handwriting on the request voucher in which, as instructed by Santos, he changed the quantity of Rydlyme to be bought.

From 10 drums as indicated in the voucher, he said he increased it to 20 drums after Santos came to his office and instructed him to do so.