{"id":212815,"date":"2015-10-21T04:00:39","date_gmt":"2015-10-20T18:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=212815"},"modified":"2015-10-21T04:00:39","modified_gmt":"2015-10-20T18:00:39","slug":"epa-awards-over-9m-to-the-cnmi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/epa-awards-over-9m-to-the-cnmi\/","title":{"rendered":"EPA awards over $9M to the CNMI"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>HONOLULU<\/strong>\u2014The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently awarded $9 million to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands to continue its efforts to protect human health and the environment. The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. will receive $6.7 million for wastewater and drinking water infrastructure support. The CNMI Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality is receiving an additional $2.3 million to support environmental program operations; $1.9 million went to BECQ in July and another $400,000 is being awarded now.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis much-needed funding will help the CNMI provide cleaner, safer drinking water, while protecting its coral reefs,\u201d said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA\u2019s Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest. \u201cWe will continue to support [the] CNMI\u2019s efforts to ensure a better environment for [its] residents.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>CUC, the agency that provides utility services to residents, will use the $6.7 million for water infrastructure projects to provide 24-hour service to its customers, improve drinking water quality, and prevent water pollution, strengthening the resiliency of their drinking water system against impacts from storms such as Typhoon Soudelor. Targeted projects include water storage tank replacements and repairs, waterline replacements, sewer lift station renovations and sewer system improvements.<\/p>\n<p>The work done by BECQ to protect human health and the environment includes inspections, projects to clean up formerly contaminated areas for productive use, monitoring the safety of pesticide use, programs to ensure clean beaches and safe drinking water, coral reef protection from runoff and sedimentation, and targeted projects to clean up polluted streams.<\/p>\n<p>Environmental priorities for the EPA funding include:<br \/>\n\u2022 Ensuring safe, reliable drinking water;<br \/>\n\u2022 Making coastal waters safe for fishing, swimming, and marine life;<br \/>\n\u2022 Protecting coral reefs and public health by monitoring beaches and water quality, and implementing recently updated Water Quality Standards.<br \/>\n\u2022 Cleaning up Saipan\u2019s watersheds by reducing pollution sources such as outhouses, illegal on-site disposal systems, piggeries, urban runoff, and livestock grazing.<br \/>\n\u2022 Conducting a radon assessment at selected homes and institutional buildings;<br \/>\n\u2022 Implementing a Conservation Action Plan to reduce and mitigate stormwater runoff for the Garapan area;<br \/>\n\u2022 Eliminating the illegal importation of pesticides and use of unregistered\/foreign pesticides;<br \/>\n\u2022 Inspecting fuel storage tanks in order to prevent fuel leaks;<br \/>\n\u2022 Emergency response, hazardous waste, and clean air program management; and<br \/>\n\u2022 Improving the automation, standardization, and access of environmental data.<\/p>\n<p>The EPA\u2019s Pacific Southwest Region (Region 9) administers and enforces federal environmental laws in Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, the Pacific Islands and 148 tribal nations\u2014home to 50 million people. <em><strong>(USEPA)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HONOLULU\u2014The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently awarded $9 million to the Commonwealth of the Northern&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[880,352,55,367],"class_list":["post-212815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pacific","tag-becq","tag-epa","tag-health-2","tag-honolulu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212815","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\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212815\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}