CUC…but they said…

Last week’s article (Not in the Saipan Tribune) regarding that purported $38 million water “loss” has finally prompted me to write yet another letter (after a three-year hiatus) attempting to bring to light the simple fact that CUC still has no idea when it comes to math.

Since 2003, I have written over 20 letters solely about CUC and its unbelievable record of presenting unmitigated fabrications to the public, to the Legislature, and to anyone else who is forced to listen. Even the well-qualified and competent stream of general managers we have seen (FORCED by EPA) over the last few years cannot be held as an improvement—because they all left after relatively short tenures.

Way back when (2003-2006) we got rid of a meddling and incompetent “board” shortly after they proposed raising the power rate from a long-standing 11.5 cents per KwH to over 33 cents—then perceived as an unconscionable and staggering deception. For some strange reason, a “board” reappeared a few years later and has ever since been trying, in cahoots with a totally incompetent Legislature, to destroy what was left. They have pretty much succeeded and that is a primary reason why former leaders have disappeared and future possibilities are hiding out.

While the power “scare” of Summer 2013 nearly got things back on track, in spite of inflated and unrevealed “real costs,” the situation is once again becoming dire indeed…and now we are hearing what amounts to yet another nail in the coffin: WATER losses!

Supposedly, there are TWO qualified and competent “managers” handling this situation: water manager Richard Wasser and chief engineer John Riegel. They, along with interim director Gary Camacho, presented a story about how much water CUC is producing and purportedly wasting (or “losing”). Here is what they SAY:

Camacho: “CUC produces 10 million gallons a day”

Wasser: “16 percent of total water produced is lost due to leaks and failed meters”

Riegel: “10 percent of leaks have already been fixed”

Unattributed: “CUC is losing an estimated $38 million in water revenue every YEAR due to unaccounted for…”

When that story came out, many readers made good use of the comments section to ask questions and proffer answers or criticisms. Some stakeholders made comments to reporters’ inquiries to be included in the story:

Torres: “Check the pipe from the wells to the tank”

Camacho: “Non-working meters, theft, meter tampering, fire hydrants, and unmetered sources and 29 pending cases at DPS” (supposedly a reference to an inept ability to prosecute).

As one commenter stated: “CUC’s figures don’t add up” (Pedro Malas)

Pedro, I’ve been showing just how poorly CUC’s figures “don’t add up” since 2003. Now, let’s take a look at recently given “figures”…again.

If CUC produces 10M gallons per day and loses 16 percent of it, that would be 1,600,000 gallons per day lost. If CUC’s estimate of losses is $38 million per year, that amounts to $104,110 per DAY in lost revenue.

CUC charges customers by the 1,000 gallons. Let’s say (for ease of computation) a customer uses 10K gallons per month. CUC charges a rate of $1.74 per thousand gallons (for amounts between 3K and 15K gallons). There is also a water “electric” charge of $3.72 per thousand gallons and a monthly base rate charge of $10.86. Add all that up and our fictitious customer will pay a bill of $65.46 for that 10,000 gallons of water used in one month.

Now, let’s look at what CUC “says” that same 10,000 gallons, when “lost,” costs them: At 1,600,000 gallons per day “lost” and a daily cost of $104,110 (taken directly from the figures provided in the article by CUC itself), that translates to $0.065 per gallon cost. Charged at the usual CUC rate of “per 1,000 gallons” that equals $65 per thousand. For the same 10,000 gallons of customer usage, CUC estimates its cost at $650.00 PER DAY or …TEN times that of our customer for the same 10,000 gallons of water! That’s also a little over 33 gallons of water “lost” every day for every single man, woman, and child on Saipan.

And here’s even more facts for CUC to chew on: The USGS estimates that average daily water consumption throughout the U.S. is between 80 and 100 gallons per day per person for all uses. The 2010 census put Saipan’s population at 48,220 persons. Let’s say the average person on Saipan consumes the higher figure of 100 gallons per day…that’s a total daily consumption of 4,822,000 gallons. So why does CUC produce 10 million gallons? OK, let’s subtract the average per capita usage from the 10M: we get 5,178,000 gallons. Now let’s also subtract the “losses” CUC claims (1,600,000). That still leaves an OVER production of 3,578,000 gallons per day…more than double the amount CUC claims is “lost”! We also know there are many apartment buildings and families that use private wells and don’t count in usage produced by CUC—but are not included here.

How do you produce that much water and not be able to account for nearly half of it? Does anyone realize just how much water that is? Well, an Olympic-sized swimming pool measures 50 meters long by 25 meters wide by 2 meters deep (standard). That volume translates to a mere 660,430 gallons…that’s nearly four and a half Olympic-sized pools full of water…every day…lost! Even the large water storage tanks of CUC on Saipan hold an average of 1,000,000 gallons when full. Is CUC unable to account for three and a half of these giant tanks full of water…every day in addition to the amount CUC says it knows is “lost”? That much water flowing freely out of tanks and pipes and hydrants and faucets every day would surely be more than noticed by many people!

Even if CUC were to add in “industrial uses,” “business uses,” “unmetered uses,” “theft,” and anything else you can think of, there is still no way to account for CUC’s estimate of production or loss. Just like a few years ago, CUC had no way to account for the actual amount of electricity produced, transmitted, or lost. I don’t believe CUC has, to this day, any way to measure the actual amount of water produced at the well-head. Does CUC have any way to measure the amount of water entering its distribution tanks vs. the amount coming from the well? Does CUC have any way to measure the amount of water entering its tanks vs. the amount of water actually entering the distribution stream (from the tanks)? Does CUC have any “choke” points at which it can measure the actual amount of water going from one area to another? Does CUC have any way to actually measure anything? And that rather silly statement by Riegel about having repaired “10 percent of leaks” is just that: silly and unsubstantiated! How can he possibly know that 10 percent have been “fixed” without knowing the exact number of total “leaks”?

I know that CUC has many very good “line” employees in their water division…and they work hard to get water where it should be as efficiently and cost effectively as possible. But all this malarkey put out by CUC “managers” coupled with even greater malarkey from an unmitigated sham of a “board” (save one member) simply undercuts and destroys all the good work attempted by well-intentioned “line” workers—so just stop it, CUC!

So, c’mon CUC, stop slathering the CPUC, the Legislature, the EPA, and U.S. with faked-out, made up nonsense baloney like you have for the last 12 years and just tell us that you don’t really know what’s going on in your system and you don’t have the funds to install equipment that could find out what’s going on.

None of what you have stated comports with all the “press releases” you have foisted upon everyone. What happened to all those “smart” meters that you got hundreds of thousands of federal dollars to replace every meter on the island and add those who had been previously unmetered (twice!)? What happened to your water leak detection task force so highly touted as “the answer”? What happened to the 15 employees trained by Mr. Scott Wicklund in 2012 at a cost of over $14,000 federal dollars and all the leak detection equipment given to you? Do you have any figures that can be verified as factual? Where are you CUC?

Dr. Thomas D. Arkle, Jr.,
Formerly of Tinian