The Northern Marianas government has signed a deal with the United States Environmental Protection Agency to prevent the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation from going into receivership.
The CNMI government will need to deposit at least 22.8 million US dollars to complete some stalled Commonwealth Utilities Corporation projects.
The court-approved settlement also requires the CUC to fund an annual budget of more than 450 thousand dollars over a five-year period for the technical manager for oil and associated oil spill prevention, preparedness and response operations.
Under the deal, the US government will waive some 40 million US dollars in penalties that have accrued for failing to address issues such as the repair and replacement of infrastructure, the management of tanks and pipelines, and spill prevention and response.
