And The Walls Come Tumbling Down…
You can’t pay your WAPA bill and now WAPA can’t pay its Hovensa bill.
This is starting to get interesting.
The Water and Power Authority owes Hovensa $20 million for oil it has already used and doesn’t have any way to borrow more money.
The Government owes WAPA thirty million dollars, while you struggle each month to pay your bill.
You do the math.
It’s the midst of a holiday week, and people have already been forced to buy water since the sludge coming out of their faucets isn’t fit to use for anything. Parents are reporting that children are showing increased cases of ringworm and impetigo from bathing in the water, and there’s no relief in sight,
And while your Thanksgiving menu may be smaller this year since you have to spend so much of your income to pay that WAPA bill, you may be eating in the dark anyway.
In a news conference Tuesday afternoon, WAPA officials told the story of the inevitable consequence of spending more money than you take in and borrowing to meet normal expenses.
They’ve been here before, and borrowed $40 million from the Government. But the Government is out of money and can’t loan any more.
But the government owes WAPA thirty million dollars, while you struggle each month to pay your bill.
There was a noticeable level of irony in the comments of the WAPA spokespeople. One said that the cash flow problems stemmed in large part from the government’s failure to pay for the cost of operating street lights, which by law WAPA must provide; and the unpaid debts of the Territory’s two hospitals, with the Juan Luis Hospital, currently 5 million in the red to the failing utility company.
A second spokesman, even In the midst of the cash flow crisis, said the Governor was doing all he could to help resolve the issue.
Pure irony, when you consider that the Governor’s actions are directly responsible for the condition WAPA finds itself in.
During the new conference it was revealed that the streetlights are funded by a percentage of the property tax collected in the Territory – a tax that this Governor chose not to collect for four years.
And is it not this Governor’s agencies that have used their budgets for everything but paying their utility bills?
With friends like the Governor, who needs enemies?
WAPA’s managers are holding the line on staffing, controlling vehicle expenses, cut travel, training and contractor budgets and made more use of technology like videoconferencing to save money. But they warned that repairs, maintenance and vendor payments will suffer from their lack of cash.
So there you have it.
If Hovensa refuses to sell WAPA more oil until their current debt is paid, the utility will be forced to go to the market for a high priced loan. And, as the spokesperson said today, those costs will be passed on to – you guessed it – the already strangling WAPA customer.
And for all his help, we haven’t heard one single word from Government House about an immediate and realistic solution to the problem WAPA now faces.
So get ready folks. The next sound you hear may be silence. No water, limited or no power – and an even larger bill.
Happy Holidays!
Herb;
As I know from many years experience on Steam Powered ship’s, the cost of using Flash Distillation Desalination Plants are expensive- especially on what we call “live steam” supply. This is complicated to explain, but I’ll give it my best shot.
Live Steam in the High Pressure Closed Cycle Steam System is generally Steam which is routed from the boiler superheater outlet, through a Desuperheater (which cools it off so it’s not a destructive to auxiliary equipment) then is reduced down in pressure from 875 psig to 50-75 psig. That in turn then feeds the Salt Water Feed Heater (or heaters in a large multi-stage unit) as heating steam to raise the incoming water temperature to above 160 degrees F., then it is sprayed in to the first flash chamber where it is about 20 degrees above the boiling point (the first stage chamber is usually at about 20″ HG or 6 psia which is nearly nine pounds below atmospheric) then on thru a repetitive process becoming more efficient by the number of stages.
This is a highly inefficient way to make water- we often use “extraction steam” or “bleed steam” which is extracted in the mid turbine steam stages or at the turbine crossover between the high pressure and low pressure turbines, this basically doubles the efficiency because the steam has already accomplished useful work in the turbine…..Likewise- we use this “bleed steam” at two other pressures to accomplish feedwater heating and also fuel oil heating…The Gas Turbine Waste Heat Boiler which was recently installed can also generate steam for the desal plants styeam supply in and boosts the overall plant efficiency siginifcantly.
The flash distilling plant usually has numerous other equipment attached to it which it depends on: air ejection system, salt water feed pumps, brine removal pumps, distillate pumps and etc… A system of pressure drops make the whole plant work..the maintenance must be kept up or the system will fail rapidly; especially pump seals, piping, control valves…which all operate at sub atmospheric pressure.
The Reverse Osmosis or R/O unit is alot different in that it requires no heating. Sea water is pre-filtered on two levels and then is pressurizied to high pressure and introduced into the first membrane stage where it is mechanically pushed through a semi-permeable membrane, in the stage their will be a water pressured eductor or jet pump which removes the brine or concentrated sat and water solution- depending on the size, number and permeability index of the membrane (and the square surface area of course) there might be an interstage feed pump which introduces into the second stage and continues as before…Sterilization or chlorination must occur after this- usually after the process….
So yes, R/O water is a lot cheaper to make than Flash Type Distillation Plants HOWEVER- maintenance is critical to both systems. My take on all this is why do we lease all of this equipment? why wasn’t the IDE Desal Plant s maintained? and lastly, were the steam plants ran at optimum performance?