Water testing is underway across Saipan and Tinian to ensure that what residents are drinking remains safe in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Sinlaku, with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency focusing on high-risk distribution points such as shelters, nonprofits, and restaurants.
Water Emergency Team incident commander Karl Banks said EPA teams are working alongside local partners to sample water supplies islandwide, particularly where the public is most reliant on shared sources.
“Our role with the federal government is to support the efforts that [the Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality], [Commonwealth Utilities Corp.], and [Environmental Health Disease Prevention] are undertaking to assure that the CUC system is operational and can restore service, that the water vendors are serving water that’s safe to drink, that restaurants who store drinking water are serving water that’s safe to drink, the shelters is a big part of this because we want to make sure that the water being served at the shelters is safe to drink,” Banks said.
He added that testing extends to temporary and nonprofit-run distribution sites.
“We have a few temporary watering points, two set up by Samaritan’s Purse that we’ve tested, and soon the [U.S.] Department of Defense is setting up two more watering points for people to go and get water from, and we’ll be testing those,” Banks said.
EPA crews are testing for bacteria, including E. coli, and coordinating closely with BECQ and CUC to verify the safety of public systems and private vendors.
Despite progress, an islandwide boil water notice remains in effect.
“There is still an island-wide boil water notice in place, and that should be adhered to,” Banks said, noting the potential for contamination from floodwaters and storm damage.
Banks said EPA deployed to the Marianas ahead of the storm and has since been conducting facility assessments, water sampling, and wastewater checks to support recovery efforts.
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