Villagomez dismayed over Agingan allegations

House Vice Speaker Timothy P. Villagomez is dismayed over renewed allegations that the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. may have misled the Legislature and the Babauta administration regarding the Agingan Point sewage treatment facility.

Villagomez, author of House Bill 14-286, had relied on CUC’s repeated reports that the beleaguered utility agency would face significant fines for failing to abide by a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency order to address the Agingan Point sewage treatment facility. CUC previously reported that it could face as much as $11 million in fines for failing to abide by an EPA order issued in 1999.

Villagomez maintains that House Bill 14-286, a bill that would appropriate approximately $3 million for the Agingan Point sewage treatment facility, was prompted by CUC’s repeated warnings of federal EPA sanctions of as much as $37,500 per day.

“I authored the bill in good faith, relying on the veracity of the grave and emphatic statements the CUC board and management repeatedly made to my office,” said Villagomez.

House Bill 14-286 passed the House and the Senate after CUC officials vigorously lobbied for its passage. The bill is now before the governor’s desk, and the governor has publicly expressed his inclination to veto the measure, citing a lack of funds and dubious reports of stiff EPA sanctions.

“If it’s transmitted as drafted, I would veto it because there’s less than that amount remaining. I don’t think it’s proper to approve it without enough funding,” the governor was earlier quoted as saying.

House members had disclosed that the Kagman wastewater project—the funding source of the Agingan project—has a balance of about $2 million only as of March 17.

The Kagman wastewater project was originally allotted $10 million. Last year, the Legislature reprogrammed $5.8 million from it for the completion of the Saipan hemodialysis center. Lawmakers then questioned the lack of remaining funds, citing that the balance should have been $4.2 million instead of only $2 million.

Based on a Department of Finance report to the Legislature, other funds were used for “survey cost, design with SSFM, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers work, and miscellaneous.”

CUC, meanwhile, still maintains its position that EPA sanctions will result if the Agingan sewage project is not immediately completed with the necessary local funding.

“We need to get to the bottom of this and find out whether CUC was, in fact, telling the truth about the EPA fines,” said Villagomez, noting that such allegations are “very alarming.”

Villagomez is chair of the House Committee on Public Utilities, Transportation and Communications, the House legislative committee overseeing CUC’s operations. Prior to his election to the 14th NMI House of Representatives, Villagomez was CUC’s executive director for several years. He reportedly left the agency with a $21 million cash surplus.