Gilbane Federal\u2019s $8.8 million to $8.9 million estimate to build the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.\u2019s \u201cnew\u201d pipeline is out the window as the project\u2019s cost is now estimated to surpass $14 million, according to CUC counsel James Sirok.<\/p>\n
Sirok also insisted that CUC doesn\u2019t want to act in a way that would prevent Gilbane Federal from completing the pipeline.<\/p>\n
Gilbane Federal is a California-based construction company appointed by the U.S. District Court for the NMI to complete some stalled CUC projects, including the pipeline.<\/p>\n
In CUC\u2019s reply to the U.S. government\u2019s response to CUC\u2019s request for a status conference, Sirok said $4 million was already spent on the pipeline project prior to Gilbane Federal\u2019s appointment.<\/p>\n
The lawyer said that Gilbane Federal estimated $8.8 million to $8.9 million to build the pipeline and at least another $1 million for decommissioning, commissioning, smart pigging, and operational training. Sirok said this brings the project\u2019s total costs to over $14 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will likely be change orders [that will] increase these costs during the construction and post-construction periods,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Sirok said it will be CUC and not the United States or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that will not be in charge of repairing and maintaining the pipeline after Gilbane Federal leaves.<\/p>\n
He said the money being spent to build the pipeline does not come from EPA but from the CNMI, through its insular grants, and from CUC\u2019s ratepayers.<\/p>\n
As the eventual owner of the pipeline, CUC has the responsibility to express its concerns about how the pipeline is being constructed, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis includes a discussion about the increasing costs of the construction as compared to other available alternatives which are substantially less expensive but provide the same result,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
By substantial, Sirok said, CUC means millions of dollars in savings.<\/p>\n
Simply put, Sirok said, the U.S. government has taken CUC\u2019s motion \u201cout of context and has twisted its content, and the statements made, in an attempt to embarrass and shame CUC into silence\u201d before the court.<\/p>\n
The United States, he noted, even uses the response to criticize CUC for repairing leaks in the existing pipeline when they occur, as if CUC should do nothing once a leak is detected.<\/p>\n
Sirok said a \u201cnew\u201d pipeline is not needed to eliminate spills. He said the existing pipeline can be repaired now, prior to leakage, by replacing defective sections with new pipe, at a much less cost than building a \u201cnew\u201d one at Gilbane Federal\u2019s high cost estimate.<\/p>\n
CUC wants the court to set a status conference to discuss Gilbane Federal\u2019s performance on the project. The utilities agency urged the court to consider allowing CUC to just repair and replace the defective sections of the existing pipeline.<\/p>\n
In the U.S. government\u2019s recent response to the motion, the U.S. Department of Justice says CUC is just throwing up roadblocks to hinder the construction of the pipeline, blaming CUC\u2019s \u201cineffective management\u201d for nearly five years that caused the costs of the project to escalate.<\/p>\n
The oil pipeline project is an 8-inch aboveground receiving pipeline that delivers diesel fuel from the Mobil oil facility to CUC Power Plants 1 and 2 in Lower Base. EPA had stated that until the pipeline is properly repaired or replaced, it poses a threat to the adjacent ocean.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gilbane Federal\u2019s $8.8 million to $8.9 million estimate to build the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.\u2019s \u201cnew\u201d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[49,112,352,1748],"class_list":["post-216012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","tag-cuc","tag-environmental-protection-agency","tag-epa","tag-gilbane-federal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216012","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\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216012\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}