SAIPAN — Commonwealth Utilities Corporation crews are working to bring the last of Saipan’s emergency water wells and a sewage lift station onto the power grid, a move that will allow FEMA to remove all of its emergency generators from the island, CUC officials said Tuesday.
Speaking at CUC headquarters in Dandan, Executive Director Kevin Watson said three water wells were set to be energized to the grid Tuesday, with FEMA removing those generators the following day. One remaining sewage lift station, at San Antonio, was also scheduled to go on the grid, which Watson said would take all of FEMA’s generators on Saipan offline.
Watson said Saipan now has 24-hour water across the island, and that crews on Tinian recently restored water to Carolina Heights by installing a FEMA generator, a new pump and motor, and a pressure tank, giving customers at the top of that line 48 pounds per square inch of pressure.
The push to remove the generators is tied to a deadline. Watson said FEMA’s full coverage of the generators ends July 9, and that staying on them beyond that date would cost an estimated $120,000 per day, a cost he said CUC does not want to pass on to customers. He said the Army Corps of Engineers needs all generators on Saipan and Tinian uninstalled by June 21 to meet its own schedule.
CUC Power Transmission and Distribution official Jonathan Camacho said the utility’s primary lines and laterals are now roughly 80 to 85 percent energized, but cautioned that a red line on the restoration maps does not mean every customer along it has power. He said close to 480 transformers remain damaged, which is the most common reason a home may still be without power while a neighbor has it.
Camacho urged residents to make sure their weatherheads are not damaged so crews can connect them when they reach a neighborhood. He said customers who need repairs should call customer service at 664-4282 to have a meter pulled, then call again for a return meter and inspection once repairs are done.
He said the work has shifted from fast restoration of main lines to slow, house-by-house connections. With about 35 to 40 CUC line crew and roughly 55 from the Guam Power Authority working about 15,000 electric accounts on Saipan, Camacho said circling the island takes time, and he asked residents whose neighbors have power to still call customer service rather than assume CUC knows their home is not energized.
On Tinian, Camacho said a Polyphase crew of retired GPA linemen arrived Saturday, though their heavy equipment was returned to Guam after inspectors found insects, including a rhino beetle, eggs, fire ants and snakes, on the barge. He said the equipment was decontaminated and the bucket trucks and an auger truck were expected back on Tinian. The crew had initially been expected to take about three weeks to complete Tinian, depending on materials.
Camacho said the utility received a small shipment of transformers and conductors from Rota and installed 100 wooden power poles from a first shipment, nearly exhausting them. He said the first shipment of concrete poles was expected Wednesday, with a larger shipment of transformers and poles due around June 21 to 23.
Watson said a line of credit to fund the bulk of materials is still pending approval, and that contracts for additional materials are moving through the signature process. He said the longest lead time is for the heavy copper conductor used on primary lines, with a partial shipment expected in two to three weeks and the bulk in seven to eight weeks.
Camacho said that with all materials and additional crews in hand, full restoration to about 95 to 98 percent could take 30 to 45 days, with the remaining customers being those who cannot be energized because of damaged weatherheads or homes. He said crews have continued energizing neighborhoods even during a stretch of about a week and a half when the utility was out of materials, by salvaging and splicing usable wire.