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CUC told to address Agingan problem
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Posted on Jul 01 2005
Gov. Juan N. Babauta has instructed the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. to work actively with two federal agencies for the reprogramming of funds for the construction of the Agingan ocean outfall and repair of the Agingan wastewater treatment facility.
Babauta, who currently has emergency control of CUC, said he has authorized CUC to ask the Office of Insular Affairs for the authority to reprogram fund balances amounting to $1.2 million for the outfall project.
At the same time, the governor told CUC to ask the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s permission to use $254,000 from an EPA wastewater construction grant for the project.
“The reprogramming of these funds, in the total of $1.4 million, will reduce the amount CUC needs to issue the instruction to begin construction—from $3.3 million to less than $1.8 million,” said Babauta.
As such, he said the actual amount necessary would only be $1.5 million, given that CUC has an available $300,000.
Babauta earlier vetoed House Bill 14-286, which intends to authorize the reprogramming of $3.3 million from the Kagman Wastewater System, due to the lack of an adequate fund balance.
The Kagman project, which originally received some $10 million through Public Law 11-119, has only $2.6 million in remaining funds.
Further, the governor said that the OIA would not approve the reprogramming because CUC had failed to timely submit its required financial audits for fiscal years 2003 and 2004 to OIA.
The CUC was issued an administrative order by the EPA in 1999 for its failure to upgrade the ocean outfall to meet environmental standards.
