The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. is applying for a loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to fund the construction of an ocean outfall that would discharge effluent from the Agingan Point Wastewater Treatment Plant.<\/p>\n
Once the CUC obtains the loan, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it would set the schedule within the wastewater treatment facility should be back into compliance with environmental regulations.<\/p>\n
The construction of the outfall is estimated to cost about $5 million, according to EPA Region 9 wastewater expert Mike Lee.<\/p>\n
For several years now, the facility has been discharging effluent at the Agingan Point cliffline. An outfall design, however, has been completed, according to Lee.<\/p>\n
A special report by the Saipan Tribune some three years ago illustrated the facility\u2019s dismal efficiency in treating wastewater, which meant its effluent contributed pollutants to the lagoon. At that time, the facility\u2019s clarifier\u2014a mechanical part that purifies wastewater\u2014was damaged.<\/p>\n
The CUC managed to repair the clarifier eventually. Lee said the facility continues to function properly to date. (John Ravelo)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. is applying for a loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to fund the construction of an ocean outfall that would discharge effluent from the Agingan Point Wastewater Treatment Plant.<\/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-82177","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\/82177","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=82177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82177\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}