CUC to seek proposals for desalination project

The Commonwealth Utilities Corporation is pushing the long-delayed water desalination project on Saipan amid concerns on the quality of groundwater resources on the island.
A request of proposal may be issued soon in search of new contractors to build the project, according to board chair Jesus T. Guerrero.

This will be the second time in four years that the government-owned utility corporation will seek proposals on the project which has been on its agenda since 1997.

A task force created by the CUC board to specifically handle the project is scheduled to meet this week to draw up a new plan on what directions to take. It is headed by Edward Sablan, who serves as board secretary and represents Saipan to the policy-making body.

“It is still ongoing… I believe they are ready to initiate the [request for proposals],” said Mr. Guerrero.

In a separate interview, Mr. Sablan declined to discuss details of the forthcoming meeting, saying only that the task force needs to study all aspects of the project.

The desalination plant has been abandoned twice by the utility corporation, sidelined by failed attempts to drum up support from government officials and island residents.

It also took a backseat as the board concentrated much of their energies in trying to deal with a host of problems surrounding Saipan’s new 80-megawatt power plant.

An initial proposal by Earth Tech, a U.S. water technology and engineering firm, was put on hold due to failure to come to terms on where to source funding for the project.

It estimated the project to cost over $100 million for the next 20 years, excluding the $10 million in building the plant.

In spite of its long-term solution to the perennial water shortage in central Saipan, island residents had frowned on a proposed cost-sharing arrangement that would raise CUC rate by about 10 times higher than what they are paying now.

Utility officials maintained the increase would be sufficient to pay the $5 million in annual billings to purchase some three million gallons of water everyday from Earth Tech under the proposed build-operate-transfer scheme.

Utility officials had deferred the costly project while they seek other ways on how to build the desalination facility at a lower price since a higher water rate may only be sole solution to the funding issue.

In the meantime., some lawmakers have already expressed concerns that the water quality on the island, which depends on aquifer drilled by CUC, has deteriorated as the population continues to grow.