EPA allows DPL to continue with clearing of Marpi land

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is allowing the Department of Public Lands, through its contractor Ampro, to continue land clearing in Marpi, citing a May 15 letter stating that the Coastal Resources Management does not require DPL to obtain a permit for the project.

Rep. Tina Sablan earlier asked EPA to suspend the Marpi project until such time that the regulatory issues raised by the project have been properly evaluated by the U.S. EPA, as well as by the local government, and resolved.

Yesterday, the U.S. EPA held a conference call with DPL, CRM and the Division of Environmental Quality.

“The purpose of the call was to better understand the issues surrounding the CRM permit requirements,” Pankaj Arora of the U.S. EPA Brownfields Program told Sablan in e-mail.

Members of the House Committee on Natural Resources chaired by Rep. Ray Tebuteb on Monday said CRM and DEQ may have violated the very same environmental laws, regulations and procedures they are mandated to enforce when they allowed clearing of 62 hectares of public lands in Marpi without a major siting permit.

Arora’s letter said based on the May 15, 2009 letter from CRM director Dr. Jon Joyner to DPL secretary John Del Rosario, “it appears that CRM is not requiring DPL to obtain a permit for this project.”

“Hence, U.S. EPA is allowing DPL to continue with the work. If CRM changes its permit requirements for this project, then U.S. EPA will revisit the issue and take appropriate actions,” Arora told Sablan.

Sablan earlier asked whether she could join the conference call, but this was not allowed.

Some 62 hectares of land in Marpi are being cleared of unexploded World War II ordnance, using U.S. EPA Brownfields funding granted to DPL.

Jon Scott, project manager of Ampro, DPL’s contractor for the land clearing, told members of the House Committee on Natural Resources that 70 percent of land clearing has been done and 40 percent of unexploded ordnance has been removed as of this week.

Besides the lack of major siting permit, members of the community have also raised concern about the earlier proposed end use for the area, which is for homestead development. DPL has repeatedly said there’s no plan to develop the area into homesteads cause of lack of infrastructure such as water, power and sewer.