Showing posts with label Sewage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sewage. Show all posts
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Friday, October 03, 2008
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Sewage Concerns Persist
Sewage concerns persist: Emerald development worries residents
By Gaynor Dumat-ol Daleno
Pacific Daily News
May 27, 2008
For more than a year now, Jonestown, Tamuning, residents have seen their neighborhood change.
New, single-family homes with price tags of $500,000 or higher have sprung up on once-empty pieces of land, adding value to the generally upper-middle-class neighborhood.
But while the new, standalone houses have been welcome additions, some Jonestown residents aren't too keen on two 15-story condominium buildings and two 18-story condo high-rises that are planned for the area.
The four high-rises are part of the proposed Emerald Ocean View Park, a $100-million project of Younex International.
Jonestown resident Nelda Flynn, through her son Michael Flynn Jr., has written to the Guam Land Use Commission that the project, "is too massive in scale."
"Water, sewer, roads and traffic would be substantially impacted by the proposed development," according to the Flynns, who submitted the letter days before the commission approved the project in November.
Nelda Flynn provided a copy of her letter to the Pacific Daily News recently in light of the growing debate about the numerous proposed high-rises on Guam amid the water, wastewater and infrastructure constraints the island faces.
Jonestown already goes through periods of low water pressure.
Court petition
Another Jonestown resident, Mary Ann C. Sablan, has taken her concerns to the Superior Court of Guam.
Sablan is petitioning the court to order the Guam Land Use Commission and the Department of Land Management to reverse approval of the Emerald Ocean View Project.
Part of Sablan's court petition states the Jonestown area is zoned "R-2" residential, which, according to Guam law, generally limits multi-family structures to 30 feet, or three stories.
Developers, however, can ask the Guam Land Use Commission for an exemption from limits on buildings, size, height, distance from lot boundaries or property use.
Several members of the public have expressed concerns about "the systemic problems Jonestown ... experiences, such as frequent periods of extreme low water pressure and traffic congestion, and that these problems would be increased," Sablan's petition states.
Jonestown currently has about 125 homes connected to the island's sewer system, and the Emerald project would add 280 condo and villa-style units, according to a study submitted to the Guam Land Use Commission as part of the developer's proposal.
An executive for Emerald Ocean View's developer, Younex International, was unavailable for comment by phone and e-mail as of press time yesterday.
But the developer is addressing some of the residents' concerns.
For example, the developer has submitted a plan to the Guam Land Use Commission to pay for $935,000 in upgrades to water and sewer lines in the area. The developer's upgrades include installing underground, 12-inch-diameter sewer pipes from Jonestown to the main sewer line on Gov. Carlos Camacho Road.
The Emerald Ocean View's additional housing units will result in more than 591,000 peak gallons per day of wastewater flow to the main sewer line in Tamuning, according to the study. That's an increase from Jonestown's current wastewater peak of 351,495 gallons per day, the study states.
Moratorium
But after the Emerald Ocean View received approval from the GLUC and Guam Waterworks Authority, things have changed at GWA.
The agency last week put in place a moratorium on water and wastewater hookups for new projects in Tamuning, parts of Tumon and parts of Hagåtña because the main water and sewer lines in those areas have reached maximum capacity.
The Emerald developer's sewer line upgrades from Jonestown to the main sewer line in Tamuning won't ease the capacity problem with Tamuning's main sewer line, which sometimes overflows with its current load.
But the Emerald Ocean View project received GWA approval before the agency knew that the main sewer line had reached its maximum capacity, said Simon Sanchez, chairman of the Consolidated Commission on Utilities. The CCU functions as GWA's board.
GWA needs about $30 million to install new main sewer lines from Tamuning to the Hagåtña wastewater treatment plant. The governor's office on Friday stated it's working with GWA and the CCU to identify funding to address the wastewater constraints, but it's unclear if GWA would be able to expand the Tamuning main sewer line before the Emerald Ocean View's 280 condo units and villas get built.
In December, the developer estimated the Emerald's units will be available starting around the second quarter of 2010, with a starting price tag of about $500,000 per condo unit.
If the developer's time frame holds, GWA has about two years to add capacity to the main sewer line from Tamuning to the Hagåtña sewer treatment plant.
By Gaynor Dumat-ol Daleno
Pacific Daily News
May 27, 2008
For more than a year now, Jonestown, Tamuning, residents have seen their neighborhood change.
New, single-family homes with price tags of $500,000 or higher have sprung up on once-empty pieces of land, adding value to the generally upper-middle-class neighborhood.
But while the new, standalone houses have been welcome additions, some Jonestown residents aren't too keen on two 15-story condominium buildings and two 18-story condo high-rises that are planned for the area.
The four high-rises are part of the proposed Emerald Ocean View Park, a $100-million project of Younex International.
Jonestown resident Nelda Flynn, through her son Michael Flynn Jr., has written to the Guam Land Use Commission that the project, "is too massive in scale."
"Water, sewer, roads and traffic would be substantially impacted by the proposed development," according to the Flynns, who submitted the letter days before the commission approved the project in November.
Nelda Flynn provided a copy of her letter to the Pacific Daily News recently in light of the growing debate about the numerous proposed high-rises on Guam amid the water, wastewater and infrastructure constraints the island faces.
Jonestown already goes through periods of low water pressure.
Court petition
Another Jonestown resident, Mary Ann C. Sablan, has taken her concerns to the Superior Court of Guam.
Sablan is petitioning the court to order the Guam Land Use Commission and the Department of Land Management to reverse approval of the Emerald Ocean View Project.
Part of Sablan's court petition states the Jonestown area is zoned "R-2" residential, which, according to Guam law, generally limits multi-family structures to 30 feet, or three stories.
Developers, however, can ask the Guam Land Use Commission for an exemption from limits on buildings, size, height, distance from lot boundaries or property use.
Several members of the public have expressed concerns about "the systemic problems Jonestown ... experiences, such as frequent periods of extreme low water pressure and traffic congestion, and that these problems would be increased," Sablan's petition states.
Jonestown currently has about 125 homes connected to the island's sewer system, and the Emerald project would add 280 condo and villa-style units, according to a study submitted to the Guam Land Use Commission as part of the developer's proposal.
An executive for Emerald Ocean View's developer, Younex International, was unavailable for comment by phone and e-mail as of press time yesterday.
But the developer is addressing some of the residents' concerns.
For example, the developer has submitted a plan to the Guam Land Use Commission to pay for $935,000 in upgrades to water and sewer lines in the area. The developer's upgrades include installing underground, 12-inch-diameter sewer pipes from Jonestown to the main sewer line on Gov. Carlos Camacho Road.
The Emerald Ocean View's additional housing units will result in more than 591,000 peak gallons per day of wastewater flow to the main sewer line in Tamuning, according to the study. That's an increase from Jonestown's current wastewater peak of 351,495 gallons per day, the study states.
Moratorium
But after the Emerald Ocean View received approval from the GLUC and Guam Waterworks Authority, things have changed at GWA.
The agency last week put in place a moratorium on water and wastewater hookups for new projects in Tamuning, parts of Tumon and parts of Hagåtña because the main water and sewer lines in those areas have reached maximum capacity.
The Emerald developer's sewer line upgrades from Jonestown to the main sewer line in Tamuning won't ease the capacity problem with Tamuning's main sewer line, which sometimes overflows with its current load.
But the Emerald Ocean View project received GWA approval before the agency knew that the main sewer line had reached its maximum capacity, said Simon Sanchez, chairman of the Consolidated Commission on Utilities. The CCU functions as GWA's board.
GWA needs about $30 million to install new main sewer lines from Tamuning to the Hagåtña wastewater treatment plant. The governor's office on Friday stated it's working with GWA and the CCU to identify funding to address the wastewater constraints, but it's unclear if GWA would be able to expand the Tamuning main sewer line before the Emerald Ocean View's 280 condo units and villas get built.
In December, the developer estimated the Emerald's units will be available starting around the second quarter of 2010, with a starting price tag of about $500,000 per condo unit.
If the developer's time frame holds, GWA has about two years to add capacity to the main sewer line from Tamuning to the Hagåtña sewer treatment plant.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Central Guam Reaches Sewage Capacity
No more developments; Sewage reaches capacity in central Guam
Guam News
Thursday May 22, 2008
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan, Variety News Staff
THE sewage system in the central part of Guam has reached choking capacity, prompting the Guam Waterworks Authority to declare a moratorium on development in the affected areas, utility officials said.
GWA's chief engineer, Don Antrobus, told the Consolidated Commission on Utilities that the agency is not likely to flash the green light for any new projects -- whether single-family homes or large developments -- in East Hagatna, parts of Hagatna, Tamuning, Upper Tumon, Harmon, and a section of Tumon Bay from the Pacific Islands Club going south toward the Hilton.
"We are informing developers right now who come into GWA and want to proceed with project plans that if they don't already have an existing building permit with us, they will not be able to move forward as we cannot allow any projects at this time to tie into our wastewater and water systems," Antrobus said.
James Martinez, executive director of the Guam Contractors Association, said GWA and project developers must negotiate a solution to avert the development moratorium that will bring the construction boom in Guam to a halt.
"A moratorium on development means potential revenue loss for the government of Guam in terms of taxes and future jobs," Martinez said.
But Martinez acknowledged GWA's dilemma.
"Developers understand that GWA doesn't have the capacity anymore to handle further developments in those areas, and we can hardly go around that," he added.
Martinez said GWA could benefit from more developments because it would mean more revenues that will enable the agency to handle and sustain developments.
"In the long run, the use of the wastewater facility pays for itself. But do they have the money to improve and sustain wastewater facilities? It's a Catch-22. What comes first: the horse or the cart?" Martinez said.
"I think both parties, GWA and the developers, need to come to a common ground and reach some kind of an agreement," Martinez said.
The GCA executive director suggested that developers could possibly split the bill with GWA to defray the cost of sewage facility upgrades. "You have to negotiate something and try to find solutions," he added.
GWA General Manager John Benavente said the agency is trying to develop "some bridge solutions that could assist with this challenge."
"But we need the community's support as well as we will need approximately $30 million to get the system up to speed to meet today's demands," Benavente said.
Karl Untalan, chief planner for the Guam Land Use Commission, said projects that have been approved by GLUC will be hooked up to the north wastewater system and will therefore not be affected by the GWA's development moratorium.
Untalan said the two controversial high-rise condominium projects proposed by Access Ypao Inc. are not likely to be affected because their water and wastewater systems will be connected to the north district.
"Only projects that will be hooked up to the system leading to the Hagatna Treatment Plant are affected," Untalan said.
He mentioned the Oka Point development plan is a project that will possibly be affected by GWA's decision.
GWA issued 700 building permits last year. At least 90 percent of the approved development plans were single-family dwelling projects.
GWA spokesperson Heidi Ballendorf said the agency will have to hold approval for any new projects until it raises $30 million for wastewater improvements.
She said GWA has identified the moratorium areas for sewage system improvements in the next five years.
Ballendorf said the need to upgrade the sewage system capacity was prompted by the impending military buildup, which wasn't factored into the GWA 20-year master plan when it was drafted four years ago.
"It wasn't in our master plan to improve our wastewater capacity until we saw this accelerated growth in these [affected] areas," Ballendorf said.
Guam News
Thursday May 22, 2008
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan, Variety News Staff
THE sewage system in the central part of Guam has reached choking capacity, prompting the Guam Waterworks Authority to declare a moratorium on development in the affected areas, utility officials said.
GWA's chief engineer, Don Antrobus, told the Consolidated Commission on Utilities that the agency is not likely to flash the green light for any new projects -- whether single-family homes or large developments -- in East Hagatna, parts of Hagatna, Tamuning, Upper Tumon, Harmon, and a section of Tumon Bay from the Pacific Islands Club going south toward the Hilton.
"We are informing developers right now who come into GWA and want to proceed with project plans that if they don't already have an existing building permit with us, they will not be able to move forward as we cannot allow any projects at this time to tie into our wastewater and water systems," Antrobus said.
James Martinez, executive director of the Guam Contractors Association, said GWA and project developers must negotiate a solution to avert the development moratorium that will bring the construction boom in Guam to a halt.
"A moratorium on development means potential revenue loss for the government of Guam in terms of taxes and future jobs," Martinez said.
But Martinez acknowledged GWA's dilemma.
"Developers understand that GWA doesn't have the capacity anymore to handle further developments in those areas, and we can hardly go around that," he added.
Martinez said GWA could benefit from more developments because it would mean more revenues that will enable the agency to handle and sustain developments.
"In the long run, the use of the wastewater facility pays for itself. But do they have the money to improve and sustain wastewater facilities? It's a Catch-22. What comes first: the horse or the cart?" Martinez said.
"I think both parties, GWA and the developers, need to come to a common ground and reach some kind of an agreement," Martinez said.
The GCA executive director suggested that developers could possibly split the bill with GWA to defray the cost of sewage facility upgrades. "You have to negotiate something and try to find solutions," he added.
GWA General Manager John Benavente said the agency is trying to develop "some bridge solutions that could assist with this challenge."
"But we need the community's support as well as we will need approximately $30 million to get the system up to speed to meet today's demands," Benavente said.
Karl Untalan, chief planner for the Guam Land Use Commission, said projects that have been approved by GLUC will be hooked up to the north wastewater system and will therefore not be affected by the GWA's development moratorium.
Untalan said the two controversial high-rise condominium projects proposed by Access Ypao Inc. are not likely to be affected because their water and wastewater systems will be connected to the north district.
"Only projects that will be hooked up to the system leading to the Hagatna Treatment Plant are affected," Untalan said.
He mentioned the Oka Point development plan is a project that will possibly be affected by GWA's decision.
GWA issued 700 building permits last year. At least 90 percent of the approved development plans were single-family dwelling projects.
GWA spokesperson Heidi Ballendorf said the agency will have to hold approval for any new projects until it raises $30 million for wastewater improvements.
She said GWA has identified the moratorium areas for sewage system improvements in the next five years.
Ballendorf said the need to upgrade the sewage system capacity was prompted by the impending military buildup, which wasn't factored into the GWA 20-year master plan when it was drafted four years ago.
"It wasn't in our master plan to improve our wastewater capacity until we saw this accelerated growth in these [affected] areas," Ballendorf said.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Condos Create Infrastructure Worries
Main sewage line at capacity
Planned condos raise infrastructure worries
By Gaynor Dumat-ol Daleno
Pacific Daily News
May 20, 2008
When manhole covers pop open and wastewater overflows onto busy Marine Corps Drive in Tamuning, it calls attention to a broader problem Guam faces amid a flurry of proposed high-rise condominiums.The main sewage line in the area has reached its limit, Simon Sanchez, Consolidated Commission on Utilities chairman, said yesterday.
"We have a major chokepoint," Sanchez said of the wastewater transmission line from Gov. Carlos Camacho Road in Tamuning to the Hagåtña sewage treatment plant near the marina.
With the line's capacity reaching its limit, GWA is at a point where it could refuse wastewater connections to new customers in the area served by the main line, Sanchez said.
The main wastewater line transmits sewage from areas beyond Tamuning. Its reach starts from the Pacific Islands Club in Tumon, to all of Tamuning, including Airport Road, and then East Hagåtña, according to GWA. The main wastewater line also services some areas of Barrigada, Sanchez said.
The main line serves the area in Tamuning and Tumon where at least three luxury condo high-rise projects are proposed for a total of almost 1,000 additional units.
The northern half of hotel row in Tumon Bay, from the Guam Marriott Resort to the proposed 700-unit condo project in Gun Beach, also faces wastewater capacity challenges that GWA has previously acknowledged.
"We don't want to stop development, but our growth has surpassed the current infrastructure capacity," Sanchez said.
He said about 20 to 30 condominium building projects are in various stages of planning by developers.
There's a consortium of luxury condominium developers that's working out a way to pay for upgrades to GWA infrastructure to allow their developments to get off the ground.
Upgrades
But the filled-to-capacity main wastewater line from Tamuning to Hagåtña is an example of what Sanchez called a "fundamental project that you can't just assign to one particular developer."
The cost to add a main sewage line from Tamuning to Hagåtña is about $25 million, Sanchez said.
GWA doesn't have an extra $25 million in its bank account to pay for the main line upgrade, but the agency has a plan to borrow about $100 million to $150 million from the bond market next year to pay for projects such as upgrading the main sewage line from Tamuning to Hagåtña.
But what's to be done until then, Sanchez asked.
"What do you do in the meantime? Are we at a point where we can't permit the next projects if we don't have the capacity?"
Wastewater capacity for Tumon Bay in general -- from Oka Point to Gun Beach -- is at capacity or has exceeded its load, according to GWA.
"Tumon Bay's sewer collection system is currently at maximum capacity and additional capacity will need to be added before it can take any additional wastewater loading," GWA officials said.
The agency is working "in partnership with a consortium of developers to create this capacity," officials said. Duenas, Bordallo, Camacho and Associates conducted an engineering study, and its analysis showed the sewer system in Tumon "is at or above capacity," according to GWA.
The study identified about $4 million in projects that will add enough capacity to central Tumon and the Ypao Beach area to allow the consortium's member-developers to proceed with their projects.
The developers' money, however, does not address what the CCU chairman calls the fundamental improvement that's needed for the main wastewater line.
The northern half of Tumon Bay hotels send their wastewater to the Fujita pump station, which has needed capacity upgrades because of its history of break-downs that has caused sewage to flow into Tumon Bay in previous years.
New charge
In addition to bond borrowing, part of the GWA plan to pay for upgrades to its infrastructure is its proposed system development charge.
The charge will require a new home construction to pay $4,000 for water and $4,000 for wastewater. Hotel and condo projects would have to pay $1 million.
Money collected from the charge will fund infrastructure upgrades for water and wastewater, Sanchez said. The charge also will pay for water and wastewater plants and other general infrastructure upgrades that may not necessarily be in the developer's area, he said.
Questioned
But while some developers are talking about helping to pay for increased wastewater capacity, one developer, Michael Ysrael of Tanota Partners, questioned the GWA move to let developers "pony up" for more wastewater system upgrades.
Ysrael said when he reviewed GWA reports, he concluded that the capacity issue for wastewater in Tumon "has nothing to do with the system."
"It's not that the system is over capacity; it's not being run right," Ysrael said.
His family owns Tanota Partners, which owns the 600-room Outrigger Guam resort, a few other Guam hotels and is building the luxury hotel resort The Bayview 5 next to the Outrigger.
GWA, in response, stated it "routinely performs preventative maintenance on sewer lines in Tumon and on all sewage pump stations and wastewater treatment plants."
Ysrael also said in 1999, sewer lines were installed in Tumon Bay as part of the multimillion-dollar Tumon Redevelopment project, which was funded with borrowed money from the bond market.
But the Department of Public Works has previously acknowledged those lines, which have almost double the capacity of current sewer lines in Tumon, have not been in use because they're not connected to a pump station.
"The new station would pump sewage to another never-built pump station at Gun Beach, which would pump the sewage out of Tumon. These two stations were never built," according to GWA.
At least $8 million of the $53 million the local government borrowed from the bond market to fund the Tumon Redevelopment project, which started in 1998, was for wastewater lines, according to Pacific Daily News files.
Public Works Director Larry Perez said in an interview in December there was $2 million available for Tumon Redevelopment's phase 3, which would include a sewage pump station. But when DPW put the project out for bid, the price tag came to $6.9 million, Perez said at the time.
DPW did have an additional $4 million available from the Territorial Highway Fund, but lawmakers authorized use of that money for the partial payment of the local government retirees' cost-of-living-allowance back payment, Perez has said.
Planned condos raise infrastructure worries
By Gaynor Dumat-ol Daleno
Pacific Daily News
May 20, 2008
When manhole covers pop open and wastewater overflows onto busy Marine Corps Drive in Tamuning, it calls attention to a broader problem Guam faces amid a flurry of proposed high-rise condominiums.The main sewage line in the area has reached its limit, Simon Sanchez, Consolidated Commission on Utilities chairman, said yesterday.
"We have a major chokepoint," Sanchez said of the wastewater transmission line from Gov. Carlos Camacho Road in Tamuning to the Hagåtña sewage treatment plant near the marina.
With the line's capacity reaching its limit, GWA is at a point where it could refuse wastewater connections to new customers in the area served by the main line, Sanchez said.
The main wastewater line transmits sewage from areas beyond Tamuning. Its reach starts from the Pacific Islands Club in Tumon, to all of Tamuning, including Airport Road, and then East Hagåtña, according to GWA. The main wastewater line also services some areas of Barrigada, Sanchez said.
The main line serves the area in Tamuning and Tumon where at least three luxury condo high-rise projects are proposed for a total of almost 1,000 additional units.
The northern half of hotel row in Tumon Bay, from the Guam Marriott Resort to the proposed 700-unit condo project in Gun Beach, also faces wastewater capacity challenges that GWA has previously acknowledged.
"We don't want to stop development, but our growth has surpassed the current infrastructure capacity," Sanchez said.
He said about 20 to 30 condominium building projects are in various stages of planning by developers.
There's a consortium of luxury condominium developers that's working out a way to pay for upgrades to GWA infrastructure to allow their developments to get off the ground.
Upgrades
But the filled-to-capacity main wastewater line from Tamuning to Hagåtña is an example of what Sanchez called a "fundamental project that you can't just assign to one particular developer."
The cost to add a main sewage line from Tamuning to Hagåtña is about $25 million, Sanchez said.
GWA doesn't have an extra $25 million in its bank account to pay for the main line upgrade, but the agency has a plan to borrow about $100 million to $150 million from the bond market next year to pay for projects such as upgrading the main sewage line from Tamuning to Hagåtña.
But what's to be done until then, Sanchez asked.
"What do you do in the meantime? Are we at a point where we can't permit the next projects if we don't have the capacity?"
Wastewater capacity for Tumon Bay in general -- from Oka Point to Gun Beach -- is at capacity or has exceeded its load, according to GWA.
"Tumon Bay's sewer collection system is currently at maximum capacity and additional capacity will need to be added before it can take any additional wastewater loading," GWA officials said.
The agency is working "in partnership with a consortium of developers to create this capacity," officials said. Duenas, Bordallo, Camacho and Associates conducted an engineering study, and its analysis showed the sewer system in Tumon "is at or above capacity," according to GWA.
The study identified about $4 million in projects that will add enough capacity to central Tumon and the Ypao Beach area to allow the consortium's member-developers to proceed with their projects.
The developers' money, however, does not address what the CCU chairman calls the fundamental improvement that's needed for the main wastewater line.
The northern half of Tumon Bay hotels send their wastewater to the Fujita pump station, which has needed capacity upgrades because of its history of break-downs that has caused sewage to flow into Tumon Bay in previous years.
New charge
In addition to bond borrowing, part of the GWA plan to pay for upgrades to its infrastructure is its proposed system development charge.
The charge will require a new home construction to pay $4,000 for water and $4,000 for wastewater. Hotel and condo projects would have to pay $1 million.
Money collected from the charge will fund infrastructure upgrades for water and wastewater, Sanchez said. The charge also will pay for water and wastewater plants and other general infrastructure upgrades that may not necessarily be in the developer's area, he said.
Questioned
But while some developers are talking about helping to pay for increased wastewater capacity, one developer, Michael Ysrael of Tanota Partners, questioned the GWA move to let developers "pony up" for more wastewater system upgrades.
Ysrael said when he reviewed GWA reports, he concluded that the capacity issue for wastewater in Tumon "has nothing to do with the system."
"It's not that the system is over capacity; it's not being run right," Ysrael said.
His family owns Tanota Partners, which owns the 600-room Outrigger Guam resort, a few other Guam hotels and is building the luxury hotel resort The Bayview 5 next to the Outrigger.
GWA, in response, stated it "routinely performs preventative maintenance on sewer lines in Tumon and on all sewage pump stations and wastewater treatment plants."
Ysrael also said in 1999, sewer lines were installed in Tumon Bay as part of the multimillion-dollar Tumon Redevelopment project, which was funded with borrowed money from the bond market.
But the Department of Public Works has previously acknowledged those lines, which have almost double the capacity of current sewer lines in Tumon, have not been in use because they're not connected to a pump station.
"The new station would pump sewage to another never-built pump station at Gun Beach, which would pump the sewage out of Tumon. These two stations were never built," according to GWA.
At least $8 million of the $53 million the local government borrowed from the bond market to fund the Tumon Redevelopment project, which started in 1998, was for wastewater lines, according to Pacific Daily News files.
Public Works Director Larry Perez said in an interview in December there was $2 million available for Tumon Redevelopment's phase 3, which would include a sewage pump station. But when DPW put the project out for bid, the price tag came to $6.9 million, Perez said at the time.
DPW did have an additional $4 million available from the Territorial Highway Fund, but lawmakers authorized use of that money for the partial payment of the local government retirees' cost-of-living-allowance back payment, Perez has said.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Sewages Closes Beaches
March 26, 2008
Sewage closes beaches: Pump problems cause wastewater overflow
By Stephanie Godlewski
Pacific Daily News
The putrid smell of wastewater greeted drivers on Route 1 in Tamuning yesterday after manhole covers were overflowing in the street.
Portions of the nearby beach area were closed after the sewage got into the water that many spent the day swimming in.
Guam Waterworks Authority crews closed the center southbound lane of Marine Corps Drive near the Pizza Hut intersection around 11:30 a.m. to work on pumping the water out.
One worker on site, Tony Cruz, said there was a problem at the Hagåtña pump station, which caused the wastewater to back up into the street.
GWA spokeswoman Heidi Ballendorf said there was a breakdown in service at the station, but that it was back up and running around 1:30 p.m.
The backed-up sewage was caused by multiple factors, said Julie Shane, GWA wastewater engineer.
"This overflow is due to a combination of work at the pump station and problems with lines coming out of Tamuning," Shane said. "However, we managed to get the pump station back online quickly, and our crews did an excellent job in an emergency situation. Some overflow did reach the river by Jimmy Dee's, and we have notified the Guam Environmental Protection Agency."
Sewage swimming
One resident in the area was frustrated because the wastewater got into a popular swimming spot, but no signs were put up to warn swimmers of what was in the water.
David Stone of Tamuning said he was upset there was no warning about sewage contaminating the water in the area.
Stone said he didn't even realize the sewage was being pumped in until later, when he took a walk and noticed GWA crews pumping wastewater.
"There were no signs on the beach. There should have been signs on the beach warning swimmers," Stone said.
The resident said when he approached a nearby beach club where tourists were frolicking in the water and notified management of the situation, no one had been informed.
Closure
Late yesterday afternoon, the Guam Environmental Protection Agency issued a beach closure for a portion of East Hagåtña Bay. The closure extends from Dungca's beach to the Alupang Beach Tower.
A beach advisory is in effect for Sleepy Lagoon Beach and Trinchera Beach. The advisory asks residents not to wade within 400 yards of the areas.
Guam EPA spokeswoman Tammy Anderson said the closure will be in place until bacteriological samples taken from the water are back to safe levels.
The closure was ordered because of the leakage of sewer water, Anderson said. Anderson said a test will be done on the water today.
She said it's unclear whether GWA will be fined for the overflow.
"It's under investigation," Anderson said. "It's too early to tell if we'll be issuing a citation."
Sewage closes beaches: Pump problems cause wastewater overflow
By Stephanie Godlewski
Pacific Daily News
The putrid smell of wastewater greeted drivers on Route 1 in Tamuning yesterday after manhole covers were overflowing in the street.
Portions of the nearby beach area were closed after the sewage got into the water that many spent the day swimming in.
Guam Waterworks Authority crews closed the center southbound lane of Marine Corps Drive near the Pizza Hut intersection around 11:30 a.m. to work on pumping the water out.
One worker on site, Tony Cruz, said there was a problem at the Hagåtña pump station, which caused the wastewater to back up into the street.
GWA spokeswoman Heidi Ballendorf said there was a breakdown in service at the station, but that it was back up and running around 1:30 p.m.
The backed-up sewage was caused by multiple factors, said Julie Shane, GWA wastewater engineer.
"This overflow is due to a combination of work at the pump station and problems with lines coming out of Tamuning," Shane said. "However, we managed to get the pump station back online quickly, and our crews did an excellent job in an emergency situation. Some overflow did reach the river by Jimmy Dee's, and we have notified the Guam Environmental Protection Agency."
Sewage swimming
One resident in the area was frustrated because the wastewater got into a popular swimming spot, but no signs were put up to warn swimmers of what was in the water.
David Stone of Tamuning said he was upset there was no warning about sewage contaminating the water in the area.
Stone said he didn't even realize the sewage was being pumped in until later, when he took a walk and noticed GWA crews pumping wastewater.
"There were no signs on the beach. There should have been signs on the beach warning swimmers," Stone said.
The resident said when he approached a nearby beach club where tourists were frolicking in the water and notified management of the situation, no one had been informed.
Closure
Late yesterday afternoon, the Guam Environmental Protection Agency issued a beach closure for a portion of East Hagåtña Bay. The closure extends from Dungca's beach to the Alupang Beach Tower.
A beach advisory is in effect for Sleepy Lagoon Beach and Trinchera Beach. The advisory asks residents not to wade within 400 yards of the areas.
Guam EPA spokeswoman Tammy Anderson said the closure will be in place until bacteriological samples taken from the water are back to safe levels.
The closure was ordered because of the leakage of sewer water, Anderson said. Anderson said a test will be done on the water today.
She said it's unclear whether GWA will be fined for the overflow.
"It's under investigation," Anderson said. "It's too early to tell if we'll be issuing a citation."
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