Fate of key Tinian infrastructure hinges on military buildup

TINIAN—Several key infrastructure improvement plans on Tinian—such as the rehabilitation of its typhoon-battered port or a bid to establish a new solid waste dump—appear for now to hinge on how the pending military buildup in Guam will impact the island.

Guam is now preparing for the arrival of an estimated 8,000 U.S. service personnel and their 9,000 family members, who are set to be relocated from Okinawa, Japan. The move will require the construction of marine infrastructure for naval ships and scores of new building projects. The military’s plans are expected to spill onto Pagan and Tinian, which officials have said could serve as a staging ground for training activities.

Coupled with anticipated growth in the tourism market, many local people here say they are cautiously optimistic the buildup can aid in reviving Tinian’s struggling island economy.

Much of Tinian’s vital infrastructure, however, requires a major overhaul. A prime example is the island’s port. In 2006, local authorities declared a state of emergency at the port due to the deterioration of its pier and the erosion of its World War II-era breakwater. An influx of silt into the port has also caused its channel to become shallow, a change that one local official says threatens to block commercial shipping to the island.

In an interview Thursday, William Cing, an advisor to Tinian Mayor Jose San Nicolas, said a host of repairs made to portions of the wharf have kept the port in operation but fixing the bulk of it is beyond the resources of the local government. Tinian’s leadership has urged the military and federal officials to take up the project as part of the buildup, he added.

“We’ve fixed the pier to the point where it can continue to operate but it’s not enough,” Cing said, noting that on stretches of the seawall, observers can watch the waves slip through unimpeded to the dock. “The rest is beyond what we can do with the money we have.”

Estimates place the cost of repairing the pier, dredging the channel and reinforcing the breakwater at $40 million or more, he said. According to a map of the site, most of the port’s assets require rehabilitation.

Meanwhile, the timetable for constructing a multi-million dollar hotel on Tinian, the proposed Matua Bay Resort, is now in doubt because the location for it currently is the island’s only solid waste dump. Local officials have long sought to open a new dump as the current on fails to comply with regulatory standards. However, staff with the mayor’s office said the most ideal place for a new dump, a swath of land on the Northwestern side of Tinian, is now under military control. Efforts to win use of the site through the military, the staff added, were progressing before early efforts toward the buildup began but they have since stalled as planners evaluate how much land on Tinian they will need.

“We can’t shut down the dump we have now until we have a new one running,” Cing said.

Attached to the new dump project is a bid to see a new wastewater treatment facility built adjacent to it, the staff said. Local officials are now weighing alternative sites for the two facilities but surveys of the island suggest the one on military land is still the most suitable.

The new dump cannot come fast enough for representatives of the Matua Bay project, who said in a conference last week that shutting the current dump is vital to keep the resort’s construction moving forward.

Mayor’s office staff said talks on the issue with the military are ongoing.