Tinian/Pagan DEIS takes shapes, hearing dates proposed

The CNMI people will soon have a chance to have their voices heard on plans the U.S. military has for the islands of Tinian and Pagan.

Yesterday, the Marines Forces Pacific proposed to Gov. Eloy S. Inos the dates of April 29, 30, and May 1 as public hearing dates for the draft environmental impact statement due April 3, for combined live-fire and artillery training on these islands.

Marines will “crawl, walk, and run” for a proposed 16 to 20 weeks of training in the CNMI—but some worry of growing capacity in the coming years that will leave the Tinian range open for an entire year, once potential training facilities have been built and put in place, with live-fire training for 46 weeks a year, for example.

However, this bridge has not been crossed yet, and might not ever. Larger scale training would require additional impacts studies and scrutiny down the line.

For their part, MARFORPAC executive director Craig Whelden said their goals in talks with the CNMI have been to hear concerns and “minimize and/or eliminate” adverse risk to the CNMI’s interests.

The military’s ad-hoc discussions with the CNMI ahead of the DEIS release were not required by federal law. Whelden called these discussions “unprecedented,” in an interview yesterday.

He said in their scoping report they looked at 16-20 weeks of training “with potential to grow beyond that to 40-plus weeks per year.”

“Our frame of reference right now for the impact to CNMI and Tinian is 16-20 weeks. We would expect to do that for a number of years before we see if we need more. And if we do need more, we’d have to do another supplemental EIS because the impact would be greater, positive or negative—but we’ll have to cross that bridge when we get to it. For now, it’s 16 to 20 weeks.”

Ad-hoc discussions with municipal and regulatory agencies appear to have shaped the DEIS the CNMI will soon review for comment in April. MARFORPAC has addressed impact to flora and fauna on Pagan, Tinian cattle grazing on military leased lands, and Tinian civilian and military solid waste management, among others.

Ongoing Tinian groundwater studies for wastewater and water use by the military were also confirmed yesterday.

“I have heard some things from people that we’re going to treat Pagan like [Farallon de Medinilla]. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are very good stewards of the environment. …We would limit the live-fire activity to the northern part of the island where the volcanic activity is, and preserve the fauna and flora of southern portion [of the island],” Whelden said.

Pagan would train a larger group of Marines than Tinian, according to Whelden. Weapons from rifles, to pistols, to mortars, to artillery, to air-delivered munitions coming to the island from ships will be discussed in a greater degree with some analysis in the DEIS, he said.

MARFORPAC is also looking at beach mobility for Tinian and Pagan. Swimmers, rubber boats, larger boats, among others, will be discussed, he said.

“You will find there are some proposals in there that evaluate several beach opportunities [on] Tinian and why we selected those beaches,” Whelden said. He could not name the beaches because the DEIS has not been approved yet.

On water studies, he said a Tinian aquifer study was done recently and was provided to the appropriate agencies in the CNMI and the Tinian mayor. The studies are still ongoing.

“We are still looking at the alternatives for ensuring that we have no impact to water or wastewater capabilities that currently exists, but add the necessary water and wastewater requirements to accommodate military presence,” Whelden said.

Asked if these facilities would be connected to the CNMI waterline, he said, “That could be one option, or it may be independent of that.”

He confirmed that this aquifer study studied leftover wells from the World War II. “There was a rehabilitation of some of those wells in the 1990s…those wells were all evaluated,” he said.

Saipan Tribune learned that the Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality had monitored the inspection of three of these rehabilitated wells south of the Westfield airport.

The military had contracted a company in Guam. Inspection was done two weeks ago, where samples were taken from these wells. The bureau had requested that the sample results be shared but none had been as of yesterday afternoon, it was gathered.