SIMON Sanchez, chairman of the Consolidated Commission on Utilities, said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s expectations from the Guam Waterworks Authority are “disingenuous” and “unrealistic.”
Sanchez was reacting to EPA’s latest filing in federal court, which expressed doubt over GWA’s ability to meet its obligations under the stipulated order and to comply with key components of the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act.
“What is their goal? To get the federal judge to put us under receivership?” asked the CCU chairman.
“We are disappointed with the characterization by the U.S. EPA in this filing,” Sanchez said, adding that local agencies have been working with EPA and the Department of Defense to identify financing for the needed upgrades.
Sanchez pointed out, however, that “The system didn’t fall apart overnight and it is not going to get fixed overnight.”
*Outstanding violations*
EPA stated that each violation identified in January court filings remains a compliance issue. “GWA’s long-standing violations of compliance deadlines have continued for several years,” EPA said.
Sanchez said GWA has completed 71 of the original 76 projects in the stipulated order, and the ones that remain are waiting for financing.
He noted that GWA has been raising rates slowly for several years to obtain the money needed to get a bond. “But we have to take into account what the people of Guam can afford,” he said. “We can’t raise a billion dollars in a couple of months.”
*Unfinished projects *
EPA listed several projects in the stipulated order with corresponding completion dates since 2007 that are still not finished. For example, GWA was required to restore primary treatment operational capacity at the northern district and Agana wastewater treatment plants by March 2007.
GWA has been assessed penalties on 15 separate occasions and paid a total of $413,750 in fines. EPA asked the court to take that into account when “assessing the significance of these ongoing, long-standing violations.”
*Permit issues *
EPA also alleged that GWA “consistently” violates its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits’ effluent limits for the wastewater treatment plants. EPA said GWA “vaguely” stated in its status report that it would continue with a plan to refurbish the northern plant, but “did not reveal what those plans entail or how it will pay for them.”
GWA also acknowledged that when it rains in Agat, GWA bypasses the Agat wastewater treatment plant entirely, “which results in the direct discharge of raw sewage into the Pacific Ocean,” EPA said. “Apparently, GWA is under the mistaken impression that this is an acceptable practice.”
*Late response *
EPA is also unhappy with GWA’s late response to the proposed new settlement offer, which provides a series of injunctive measures to address GWA’s compliance problems.
The status report by GWA contains a “series of vague statements with no firm commitments or deadlines for compliance and no viable plan to finance required remedial measures,” EPA said.
“Now is the time for GWA to step up to the plate,” states Robert Mullaney, attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Environmental Enforcement Section.
Sanchez, meanwhile, said GWA will respond to EPA’s proposed consent decree on Wednesday, when the federal court holds a status hearing on the case.
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Sanchez: EPA has ‘unrealistic expectations’
