Stakeholders agree to ship Tinian waste off-island

Local and military stakeholders set February 2017 as the target launch date for shipping solid waste from Tinian to Saipan, given they first construct a Tinian transfer station and line “Cell #3” of the Marpi Landfill on Saipan.

After meeting with stakeholders on Capitol Hill, Tinian Mayor Joey San Nicolas told reporters yesterday that they had all agreed on this February 2017 date. “We are all committed to answering the call of solving the solid waste issues down on Tinian,” he said.

Tinian Mayor Joey P. San Nicolas makes a point during a meeting with stakeholders over Tinian’s solid waste issues at the Office of the Governor’s conference room yesterday. (Dennis B. Chan)

The decision by stakeholders yesterday comes amid the larger backdrop of U.S. military plans for live-fire range complexes on Tinian and the years of failure to close the non-compliant, and open-air Tinian dump. The property the dump sits on has recently been leased to multi-million-casino investor, Alter City Group, adding more separate interests into the fold.

The Marine Corps Forces Pacific’s live-fire range project requires some 353 tons of off-island waste disposal for a training period of 20 weeks, according to military impact documents. They project to support an average population of 1,200 per year.

For a period of 45 weeks, they project 794 tons of waste for off-island waste disposal.

MARFORPAC environmental specialist Sherri Eng told stakeholders that their funding sources would come from the military’s live-fire range project, or the “CNMI Joint Military Training” project.

MARFOPAC project leader Tim Robert told Saipan Tribune that this was a U.S. Department of Defense requirement. “It’s to meet our solid waste needs for our training on Tinian,” he said.

“We will come back in October this year with a feasibility study that lays out the process and the cost estimates for one, the upgrade of the Marpi facility, and two the costs of the process of the shipping itself of solid waste from Tinian to Saipan,” he said.

Once the transfer station is completed, it was gathered that the processed waste would be sealed in a container and shipped on a barge to Saipan, where the container would be transferred to the Marpi landfill.

The long-term solution

Meanwhile, the mayor and the Department of Public Land have identified the general Pina area on Tinian for the island’s landfill.

DPL secretary Pete A. Tenorio told stakeholders yesterday that he was personally a part of a field survey on Tinian where they had looked at two alternative sites in the southern portion of Tinian, past Tachungya beach, and eastern side of the island, near the Suicide Cliff.

But according to Tenorio, accessibility, travel distance, and coverability were issues with the two sites as they were “too rugged” and “difficult” to get to.

The Pina site on the other hand did not have this problem and its ground water flowed away from the ground area basin of Marpo Valley, a water source for Tinian, and out into the Pacific Ocean, according to Tenorio.

Right now, the Pina site is undergoing assessment for unexploded ordnance from World War II. DPL has been looking at the Pina plateau area and below it’s ridge.

However, MARFOPRAC’s Sherri Eng told stakeholders that a military siting study was done that “ruled out” that area below the plateau because of fault lines and tsunami elevation standards.

Capping the Tinian dump

According to San Nicolas, the Tinian municipality expects to finalize a “memorandum of understanding” with Alter City Group next week to allow them and the Department of Public Works to manage the dump.

According to the mayor, they expect to manage solid waste through “an aggressive recycling program,” and by identifying other sites for green waste and recyclables to lessen the footprint of the dump.

This includes the ”capping and closing of the current dump,” the mayor said. This is targeted for September.

Funding sources

The Capital Improvement Office has completed designs for the Tinian transfer station in San Jose near the island’s power plant. The Tinian mayor handed a letter to CIP yesterday indicating their intent to use that site.

San Nicolas said there are issues of funding but they “are talking with [the Department of Public Works] and [the Office of Insular Affairs] on how we can fund that project.”

DEQ site assessment manager Ray Masga said they were happy with yesterday’s outcome. “I think we understand the degree of complexity this project takes and there are requirements that need to be followed,” he said.