Navy, GWA water deal could be closer step to Fena

A new licensing agreement that allows the Guam Waterworks Authority to temporarily run the U.S. Navy’s water well in Tumon could likely be a step toward the local utility agency controlling the military-owned Fena Reservoir, according to GovGuam officials.

The Navy and GWA last month signed a one-year agreement, with four, one-year extensions, that allows the waterworks department to run the Tumon Maui Water Well, the largest capacity well on island.

The licensing deal, according to a military press release, is a part of a pilot project to see how well GWA manages the Navy-owned water treatment facility, which was constructed in 1947 and used until 1995.

“The Navy and (GWA) are working toward integrating the Navy water system with the GWA water system,” Catherine Cruz Norton, spokeswoman for the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Marianas, said in an email.

GWA applies for $8.9 million to improve systems

The Navy had the well repaired in 2011 and it’s been in use since 2013, according to the military. The Maui Well can produce up to 1.5 million gallons of water per day, serving about 2,400 homes or 10,000 people.

Norton noted that the leasing of the Maui well also is meant to allow the waterworks department to turn off four of its smaller wells, while still allowing water to flow to the central and northern parts of the island.

Joint Region Marianas Commander Rear Adm. Bette Bolivar previously stated that the Maui well deal ties into the “One Guam philosophy."

According to Sen. Tom Ada, D-Tamuning, the One Guam initiative is an effort that pushes the idea of maximizing resources, wherein GWA and GPA handle all water and power, respectively, while the Navy focuses its energy on protecting the island and the Pacific.

“In this case, let GWA do what it’s good at doing and that’s producing and distributing water, and let the military do what it’s good at in protecting this island,” Ada said.

Government officials, including Ada and Consolidated Commission on Utilities member Simon Sanchez, believe this pilot project will prove to the Navy that GWA should control the Fena reservoir and all of the island’s water system.

The government of Guam and the CCU have advocated for control of the Fena Reservoir for more than a decade. Sanchez said it would be more efficient for the Waterworks Authority to manage all of Guam’s water and wastewater systems.

“We’ve always taken the position of a unified water system,” Sanchez said.

The waterworks department, Sanchez continued, already generates 90 percent of the island’s water supply, while the military generates its own water.

“The Maui well is an example of a new well being brought to life and letting GWA manage it … we process more wastewater, we have more miles of pipe, we have a much bigger system,” Sanchez said. “For us to manage the military system is a slam dunk.”

Norton said the Fena Reservoir hasn’t been part of the regular discussions regarding the framework for an integrated water system in Guam. However, she acknowledged that such a framework could be altered down the line.

“The framework is intended to be a living document that will continue to capture progress and forecast planned initiatives to support an integrated system for the people of Guam,” Norton said.

“Integrating two different water systems is a measured process that will take time,” she also said in the email. Complete integration will be realized when the Navy and GWA can demonstrate that assimilating the two will result in a reliable, sustainable, compliant and secure system for the entire community on Guam.”

The Navy completed construction of the Fena Reservoir in 1951, according to Guampedia. However, when talks of transferring ownership of the reservoir to the local government occurred in 2011, the National Defense Authorization Act required a “fair-market value” sale, which at the time was around $300 million.

Palacios: Chemical found in water wells is toxic

“The Fena conversion is a much more involved one,” Sanchez noted, adding that, “we’ve never agreed that was a fair transfer.”

“So we need to revisit that agreement cause it’s in federal law,” he also said. “It moves us further away from merging the system.”

Instead of paying for any transfer of ownership, Sanchez said the CCU has been pushing the Navy to agree to a similar deal they made regarding the island’s power in the 1990s. Similar to the water issue, the Navy was generating its own power until the ‘90s when it agreed to relinquish control of all power generators to the Guam Power Authority, at no cost.

Sen. Ada, who chairs the legislative Committee on Infrastructure, said the latest Maui Well deal isn’t so much an opportunity for GWA to prove itself to the Navy, but rather an opportunity to show that the department and military can cooperate.

“GWA is running 10 times more water wells than the Navy is. They’re running a water treatment plant. They’ve already proven themselves,” Ada noted. “What I think this does is enable GWA and the Navy a way to work out the inter-government opportunity.”

“If it can demonstrate this inter-government agency, it’s easy for the Navy to go to Congress and say, “Let the Navy be out of the water pumping business and let GWA take over the water system the way GPA did the power system 20 years ago,” he added.