Welcome!
Welcome to the home page for the Mariana Islands Water Operator Association. This web site provides information about upcoming continuing education training for water and waste water operators in the Northern Mariana Islands (click on "Training Calendar" to the left), and links to on-line training resources and exam study materials (click on "Links:). To learn more about the benefits of becoming a member of the Mariana Islands Water Operator Association click on "Membership." To learn more about the water operator certification requirements in the Northern Mariana Islands click on "Certification." Members of the Association are eligible to check out books from the Association "Lending Library". Click on "Lending Library" at the left to see what titles are available.
Virtual Water and Wastewater Operator Certification Training Series
ANNOUNCEMENT from BECQ
We're excited to share an opportunity for you to participate in a year-long virtual operator certification training for Level 1 Water and Wastewater operators, with content to level 2. The training begins next week on June 25, 2025, and is open to all operators.
TRAINING DETAILS:
Start Date: June 25, 2025
Frequency: Every other week through June 2026
Duration: 1 Hour Per Session
Format: Virtual ( Link and platform detail to follow)
PLEASE CLICK LINK TO REGISTER FOLLOW BY REGISTERED VIRTUAL DATES
Schedule:
WASTEWATER TRAINING:
Wednesday; 8:00AM-9:00PM
https://unm.zoom.us/meeting/register/NHgg79KMTN-AEjbDlotApg
WATER TRAINING:
Thursday; 8:00AM-9:00AM
https://unm.zoom.us/meeting/register/oitgAXeiRem5eRRhyHYv_Q
The training will follow NEED-TO-KNOW CRITERIA and also include helpful information for daily operations. Sessions were created to meet CUC's training order, but they are valuable to any operator and we encourage your participation.
CEUs ( Continuing Education Units)
· CEUs will ONLY be provided to those who attend live sessions
· All Trainings will be recorded, but recorded sessions will not count for CEUs.
· If operators attended in group ( Same room, onescreen), please complete the attached attendance sheet for each session and send it to [email protected] or [email protected] for tracking
· If attending individually from your own device, attendance will be tracked automatically
· Attached is the attendance sheet. Please review and share alongside your peers for successful educational purposes.
If you have any questions or would like to confirm participants, feel free to contact us.
Amy Cabrera
Environmental Technician
Division of Environmental Quality
Bureau of Environmental & Coastal Quality
Safe Drinking Water Program
P.O. Box 501304 Saipan, MP 96950
Tel: +1 (670) 664-8500
Fax: +1 (670) 664-8540
We're excited to share an opportunity for you to participate in a year-long virtual operator certification training for Level 1 Water and Wastewater operators, with content to level 2. The training begins next week on June 25, 2025, and is open to all operators.
TRAINING DETAILS:
Start Date: June 25, 2025
Frequency: Every other week through June 2026
Duration: 1 Hour Per Session
Format: Virtual ( Link and platform detail to follow)
PLEASE CLICK LINK TO REGISTER FOLLOW BY REGISTERED VIRTUAL DATES
Schedule:
WASTEWATER TRAINING:
Wednesday; 8:00AM-9:00PM
https://unm.zoom.us/meeting/register/NHgg79KMTN-AEjbDlotApg
WATER TRAINING:
Thursday; 8:00AM-9:00AM
https://unm.zoom.us/meeting/register/oitgAXeiRem5eRRhyHYv_Q
The training will follow NEED-TO-KNOW CRITERIA and also include helpful information for daily operations. Sessions were created to meet CUC's training order, but they are valuable to any operator and we encourage your participation.
CEUs ( Continuing Education Units)
· CEUs will ONLY be provided to those who attend live sessions
· All Trainings will be recorded, but recorded sessions will not count for CEUs.
· If operators attended in group ( Same room, onescreen), please complete the attached attendance sheet for each session and send it to [email protected] or [email protected] for tracking
· If attending individually from your own device, attendance will be tracked automatically
· Attached is the attendance sheet. Please review and share alongside your peers for successful educational purposes.
If you have any questions or would like to confirm participants, feel free to contact us.
Amy Cabrera
Environmental Technician
Division of Environmental Quality
Bureau of Environmental & Coastal Quality
Safe Drinking Water Program
P.O. Box 501304 Saipan, MP 96950
Tel: +1 (670) 664-8500
Fax: +1 (670) 664-8540
BECQ funded training in 2025/2026
In November 2024, the CNMI Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality (BECQ), Division of Environmental Quality (DEQ), Safe Drinking Water Program awarded Lau Lau Consulting & TCB Services a contract to provide four water treatment and water distribution certification exam preparation classes over the next two years. To find out more about this FREE training, and to register for the next class (Mar 31 - Apr 11, 30 hours) click on the button below to go to the class registration page on the Lau Lau Consulting webpage:
Upcoming trainings/webinars offered by other organizations
RCAC Training Calendar
Here is a link to RCAC's Training Calendar, so you can see in real time the latest RCAC class offerings:
https://www.events.rcac.org/rcac/Calendar.asp
Many of these classes are on-line, but are geared towards specific States, and are conducted in the local time zone (often early morning hours for CNMI people). If you see one you are interested in, register early, because they tend to fill up, then registration closes.
Here is a link to RCAC's Training Calendar, so you can see in real time the latest RCAC class offerings:
https://www.events.rcac.org/rcac/Calendar.asp
Many of these classes are on-line, but are geared towards specific States, and are conducted in the local time zone (often early morning hours for CNMI people). If you see one you are interested in, register early, because they tend to fill up, then registration closes.
National Rural Water Association (NRWA) Webinars:
coming soon....
EPA Webinars:
coming soon...
Add your email to on-line class invitation list
If you are not already receiving training announcements from "[email protected]" then complete the form below and click submit to get added to the email invitation list for the new on-line CEU classes. If you have been receiving emails, then you are already on the email invitation list. It won't hurt to fill it out again if you want. I enter all these manually so I'll check to see if you are already on the list before I add you. It will take at least 24 hours for me to add you to the list because I only do this once a day at most.
Purchase an Annual Membership Here (COMING SOON)
WE ARE STILL TESTING THIS....PLEASE DON'T PAY VIA THIS WEBSITE JUST YET...COMING SOON.
IT MAY WORK AND TAKE YOUR MONEY, BUT WE ARE NOT EXACTLY SURE WHERE THE MONEY GOES YET!
IT MAY WORK AND TAKE YOUR MONEY, BUT WE ARE NOT EXACTLY SURE WHERE THE MONEY GOES YET!
PFAs Resources for Water Operators
Interstate Technology and Regulatory Council - PFAS Resources for Water Operators: https://pfas-1.itrcweb.org/
PFOS and PFOA Health Advisory
In 2015 CUC conducted two rounds of sampling for unregulated contaminants. In May of 2016, USEPA announced a health advisory for two of the contaminants that were detected in the Saipan CUC water distribution system. CUC immediately removed one well from service that was known to contain high concentrations of the contaminants known as PFOS and began the process of collecting samples from other wells to determine the extent of the contamination. In late July 2016 CUC received the results from the sampling and were able to determine which wells were contributing significant amounts of PFOS to the distribution system. On July 29, 2016 - six additional wells were removed from service in order to reduce the contaminant concentration to below the health advisory level of 0.070 ug/l. For more detailed information about PFOS and PFOA contamination on Saipan, health affects of PFOS and PFOA and to see a map of the water distribution areas on Saipan that were affected click here or click on the "PFOS - PFOA Health Advisory" link on the menu.
Information about the Revised Total Coliform Rule (RTCR)
The Revised Total Coliform Rule went into effect on April 1, 2016. You may know that a water system is supposed to take some kind of action if they get a total coliform positive sample during their routine monthly sampling, but how many positive samples does it take before action has to be taken? And then what action has to be taken? We have created a page to remind water operators how this new rule works. Click on RTCR Info on the left side menu or click here.
Information about Lead and Copper in CNMI's drinking water
The lead contamination crisis in the drinking water supply in Flint, Michigan became national news in late January 2016. This crisis has revealed to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the CNMI Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality the need to make the public more aware of the efforts made towards regulating lead and copper in the CNMI's drinking water as well as making sure that the drinking water is free from all harmful contaminants. To further that need, the Mariana Islands Water Operator Association, in conjunction with BECQ, has created several web pages that describe the sampling protocols for lead and copper, guidnace for selection of sampling sites, materials inventories for public water systems in the CNMI, and lead and copper sampling results for most public water systems in the CNMI. To go to the Lead and Copper Information pages click here.
BECQ Publishes Revised Drinking Water Regulations
The Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality (BECQ) Safe Drinking Water Program (SDWP) published the adoption of the final revised drinking water regulations in the December 28, 2015 edition of the Commonwealth Register. These revised regulations adopt the new Revised Total Coliform Rule (Subpart Y of 40 CFR 141). BECQ held a Public Water System Workshop on Tuesday January 26, 2016 where they introduced the new regulation to CNMI water systems. The water operator Association plans on conducting further training for this new rule in March 2016. Specifically the training will address how certified operators-in-charge of public water systems are to conduct level 1 assessments of their system if there is a positive total coliform detected in their distribution system.
To learn more about the Revised Total Coliform Rule visit U.S. EPA's website: http://www.epa.gov/dwreginfo/revised-total-coliform-rule-and-total-coliform-rule
You can find the official version of the CNMI Drinking Water Regulations on the CNMI Law Revision Commission website: http://www.cnmilaw.org or http://www.cnmilaw.org/mediawiki-1.21.2/index.php?title=65-20
Also, you can download a pdf copy of the "unofficial" version of the CNMI Drinking Water Regulations by clicking here.
To learn more about the Revised Total Coliform Rule visit U.S. EPA's website: http://www.epa.gov/dwreginfo/revised-total-coliform-rule-and-total-coliform-rule
You can find the official version of the CNMI Drinking Water Regulations on the CNMI Law Revision Commission website: http://www.cnmilaw.org or http://www.cnmilaw.org/mediawiki-1.21.2/index.php?title=65-20
Also, you can download a pdf copy of the "unofficial" version of the CNMI Drinking Water Regulations by clicking here.
Attendance certificates now on-line
Attendance certificates for classes are now available as downloadable pdf or tiff files from this website. To find certificates for any class, click on the Training Calendar link at the left > then Past Events > then select the class from the list, like November 9, 2011> at the bottom of each page is a list of people that were at the class. Click on the person's last name to download the certificate for that person for that class.
Lending Library Materials
Our records about who has what book checked out are not up to date. Some members have returned books and others have checked them out - but somehow the transaction did not get recorded. If you have a lending library book out and your name is not on the list please let us know so we can record your name with the book.
Our Mission
The Mariana Islands Water Operator Association is a non-profit corporation whose mission is to provide and promote training and career development for operators and managers of environmental utilities in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
We'll start collecting membership fees in 2025!
Membership in the Mariana Islands Water Operator Association is ONLY $10 a year. What a bargain. Click on the membership link to the right to find out what the benefits are of being a member of the Association. One of these days we will figure out how to take your money electronically. But for 2024, we are not collecting membership fees since it we have not been meeting regularly. Back to fees again in 2025.
Contact Information
We don't have a physical office. Our organization is managed by an unpaid board of directors that volunteer their time and energy. The best way to contact us is via e-mail at the addresses listed below:
Board Members (positions yet to be determined)
P.O. Box 502512, Saipan, MP 96950 (USA)
Electronic mail
General Information, Webmaster, Training Announcements [email protected]
Board Members (positions yet to be determined)
- Derek Chambers
- Cecilio Raiukiulipiy
- Mariano Iglecias
- Larry Manacop
- Gary Byrd
P.O. Box 502512, Saipan, MP 96950 (USA)
Electronic mail
General Information, Webmaster, Training Announcements [email protected]
Last Modified: 03/07/2025