On a mission to provide safe, reliable, responsible, and cost-effective water and wastewater management, the Guam Waterworks Authority (GWA) is the public water management body overseeing the water system across Guam. With water being such a vital resource, a governing body must oversee its management and ensure that water and wastewater are protected down to the very last drop. For Guam, the management of the water systems is underpinned by its commitment to delivering excellent customer service, so every customer can benefit from reliable and accessible access to water every day.
Guam’s utility services were long managed by the Public Utility Agency of Guam (PUAG) until the Congress of Guam passed Public Law 1-12 which shifted the authority of administering utility services to the Department of Public Works following a growing demand in water services. Whilst PUAG focused on telephone, power, water and wastewater facilities, the need for a dedicated service focused primarily on the water and wastewater division of public services was needed. Therefore, the Guam Waterworks Authority was established in 1996 as a semi-autonomous, self-supporting agency to oversee the local public water management body.
Today GWA is overseen by General Manager Miguel Bordallo, and governed by the elected, non-partisan Consolidated Commission of Utilities (CCU). CCU are responsible for overseeing the operations across GWA and the Guam Power Authority (GPA), where the 5-member commission takes on policy responsibility of the two utility authorities from the Guam Legislature. Upon being sworn into office in 2003, CCU was faced with solving the $25 million of debt and pending federal lawsuits for numerous violations made over the last decade across the water and wastewater systems. With a large job ahead of them, GWA under CCU made strides to rectify problems and deliver a water network to meet the needs of Guam’s water and wastewater needs. By 2014, GWA has been largely successful with a customer base of more than 41,000 customers for water, and 25,000 customers for wastewater. Across its operations, GWA has remained committed to delivering top-quality water services that ensure water is safe, reliable and cost-effective to all citizens across Guam.
Under GWA is the vital role of the operations department, which is made up of utility services operations. These services include the water production and waste distribution divisions which work to deliver water, as well as oversee the collection and treatment of wastewater. This department is responsible for ensuring that the water is safe for its customers. Across Guam’s network, it works to manage and facilitate vital maintenance and meter readings. The water operations and maintenance unit then is responsible for managing the supply of water to individual customers, ensuring the volume and pressure of water are adequate and safe for its 42,000 customers. Working closely across the association, the division is focused on ensuring line and leak repairs are fixed quickly. In addition to this, the unit is focused on maintaining the pumping stations located across Guam, as well as fire hydrant and valve maintenance.
One of the vital roles of GWA is its wastewater treatment, which is facilitated through the Authority’s various treatment facilities including the Ugum Water Treatment Plant which is a surface water production facility. The plant is responsible for pumping river water up to the plant and through several filtration treatments and chlorine disinfection processes to produce clean, safe, and potable water. Once cleaned, water is then stored in the plant’s reservoir, before it is released back into the distribution network serving the south of Guam. Other treatment divisions include the Deep Well division which is focused on the extraction of clean drinking water from groundwater sources, and the Northern District Wastewater Treatment Plant which is part of the Chemical Enhance Primary Treatment (CEPT) facility in Upper Tumon and Dededo which is focused on the operation and maintenance to comply with National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits. Hagåtña Wastewater Treatment Plants is also responsible for the operation and maintenance of the facility meeting with NPDES permits treating an average daily flow of 5.8 MGD and disposing of all solids generated at the Layon Landfill.
The final key division of GWA after water distribution, and wastewater treatment is wastewater collection. This division is focused on maintaining and supporting pumping stations, maintaining pipelines and helping to remove built-up fats, oils and grease which cause blockages and damage to water pipes. Through a fleet of 300 technical support engineers, GWA is on the ground helping with facility maintenance to ensure water and wastewater operations can be maintained. Across all of GWA operations, the focus is on ensuring the safe, reliable and cost-effective delivery of water and wastewater services. A key way that it can help the authority and its customers to keep the service cost-effective is by cutting down on water loss, which ensures the system is well maintained for long-term use. This helps to streamline operations and ensure every drop is protected.
However, across the maintenance and development of Guam’s water and wastewater system, GWA relies on local suppliers to make facility development and redevelopment possible. Local suppliers including construction companies are vital to helping produce new and innovative water and wastewater treatment systems and plants. These are outlined in the various bids present on the GWA website, including the construction management and project management services bid for the Hagåtña Main Sewer Pump Station and Redundant Force Main, or the design and build of the Upper Tumon Warehouse Renovation project. These bids highlight GWA’s constant commitment to developing and redeveloping the network to supply, collect and sanitize water more seamlessly every day.
In 2022, GWA completed a key development project spanning the upgrade of the Northern District Wastewater Treatment Plant (NDWWTP) with a secondary treatment system under the $122 million project contract. The project saw the NDWWTP system upgrades through the construction of a new secondary wastewater treatment facility that would enhance the existing facilities at the plant. The project aimed to step up the hydraulic capacity of the plant and accommodate a larger water system in line with the growing population.
The project was awarded to Black Construction Corporation, for secondary treatment upgrades to the NWWTP. The project spanned between 2019 and 2021 and saw the construction of 15 new reinforced concrete structures comprising 22,000 cy in situ with 2,200 tons of epoxy-coated reinforcing steel. In addition to this, the project spanned the installation of 20,000 linear feet of buried and above-ground process piping, 9000 linear feet of potable and non-potable water piping, as well as many upgrades to the existing infrastructure. The project highlights the valuable and vital role local companies play in helping GWA maintain its water network.
In the announcement of the project, Miguel Bordallo, general manager of GWA outlines that “The upgrade to the Northern District plant is a major milestone in improving our wastewater services for the benefit of Island residents and the protection of both our marine environment and the Northern Guam Lens Aquifer”. He continues, “This project will ensure that Guam’s largest wastewater treatment plant will meet the National Pollutant Discharge Eliminations System (NPDES) permit requirements by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEOA) and increase hydraulic capacity throughout the facility to accommodate future flows”. Bordello outlines how the project utilised part of a grant fund through the Office of Economic Adjustment and allowed GWA to achieve voluntary compliance with EPA regulations without undue burden on GWA ratepayers. What the entire project exemplifies is that local businesses remain vital to GWA’s operations, and so through such contracts and partnerships, the Authority can continue to deliver excellent water and wastewater services in a safe, reliable and cost-effective manner backed by the infrastructure and development to support it.
Overall, GWA has been leading Guam’s water and wastewater services for almost 30 years, and throughout every operation, it remains focused on ensuring that it delivers the necessary water services to support the people of Guam every day. With the help of local businesses, GWA has continued to redevelop and expand its facilities to better keep up with the demand for water and wastewater services for a growing population. As GWA moves towards the future, we look forward to seeing how it continues to develop the water network in Guam through strategic developments for the future.
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