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EPA awards additional $1.43 million in grants to CNMI for new drinking water tank

Release Date: 03/21/2007
Contact Information: Dean Higuchi, 808-541-2711, [email protected]

(03/21/07) HONOLULU – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is awarding an additional $1.43 million to an existing grant to the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation for building a one million gallon water storage tank in the Kanat Tabla area on Saipan.

The funding will also be used for installing transmission and distribution lines in the area and nearby communities.

“The funding will be put to good use by CUC to improve drinking water systems and ensure reliable supply of drinking water to the CNMI residents,” said John McCarroll, manager of the EPA Pacific Southwest Region’s Pacific Islands Office. “This new tank is part of a number of system improvements by CNMI that will eventually lead to 24-hour water on Saipan.”

The additional $1.43 million was added to an existing EPA grant, for a total of $2.98 million. The original project was for a 100,000-gallon tank, but the larger tank was approved by the EPA when a nearby one million gallon water storage tank at the Northern Marianas College was found to be structurally unsound and in need of immediate repair and eventual replacement.

The project will provide additional pressure and more hours of water available per day to the nearby communities, and allow the NMC tank to be taken off-line and replaced. Construction will begin shortly and take a year to complete.

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