Add the lack of water to the lack of power and other miseries plaguing Saipan these days.<\/p>\n
A water main break in Sadog Tasi Friday afternoon spilled thousands of gallons of water from the Capital Hill tank, resulting in significant and wide-ranging low pressure for most of the island. <\/p>\n
Although the break has already been repaired, it will take some time before water pressure will stabilize, according to Bruce Megarr, deputy director for the Water and Sewer Division at the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.<\/p>\n
He said a local contractor was compacting a road along the cement line in the area when the incident happened, affecting an 8-inch transmission main.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe incident happened around 4pm [Friday]. They [contractor] responded in a timely manner, and immediately reported the incident to CUC,\u201d said Megarr. <\/p>\n
The water main was isolated within 45 minutes and was fixed within three hours, Megarr added.<\/p>\n
The break, however, resulted in the loss of about two-thirds of the water in the Sadog Tasi tank, or more than 600,000 gallons of water.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you are pushing 30 to 40 pounds per square inch of pressurized water through a broken 8-inch main, you\u2019re moving a lot of water,\u201d Megarr said.<\/p>\n
When asked how soon the water pressure will stabilize, he said this would depend on several factors.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is dependent on numerous factors, power being one of them. We also have a compromised drive in the main well in the area. Also, the tank has to be filled up. Only then can we can start releasing the water to the public,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Megarr said the incident may have also compromised the cleanliness of the water.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will be doing aggressive biological monitoring of the lines to make sure that contamination does not occur but, given the reduction in pressure, people should not consume the water without boiling it first,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
This incident is on top of other problems the water production is experiencing, mainly due to the ongoing work at the power plant.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Due] to the unavoidable power reduction, other major water wells have been affected, primarily Isley Field in the airport where we have 45 percent of our water wells, producing about 50 percent of the water on island,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been forced to curtail water production in those areas, producing less water for the southern portion of the island. As such, the same caution applies regarding potability,\u201d Megarr added. This means people must boil the water first before using them for food or drinking.<\/p>\n
Not everything is bleak, though. CUC\u2019s water division recently brought online five additional generators, powering 15 major wells and boosters, ensuring that places like Kagman and Donni Springs have increased supply compared to other areas, Megarr said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Add the lack of water to the lack of power and other miseries plaguing Saipan these days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125748\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}