Oct. 1 is new deadline for DEIS comments

The U.S Department of Defense has agreed to extend the comment period for the draft environmental impact statement on proposed military joint training and live fire exercises in the CNMI.

Press secretary Ivan Blanco confirmed that the military agreed to the extension request of Gov. Eloy S. Inos. The new deadline is now Oct. 1, 2015.

Craig Whelden, executive director of the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Pacific, in a letter to Inos on Wednesday, said “although your letter requests an extension on the public comment period for the CJMT DEIS until mid-September, in consideration of the difficulties being faced by the citizens of CNMI, I am extending the comment period to Oct. 1 (5pm, Eastern Time).”

Whelden said the notice of extension will be placed in the Federal Register and an announcement will be made to members of the press.

On Tuesday, Inos sent a letter asking for another extension of the comment period for the DEIS.

“An extension is needed until at least the middle part of September and I hereby request an extension of time to receive public comments and to allow NMI agencies to return to normal conditions and complete their work,” Inos said in his letter to Whelden.

The governor said “in the aftermath of Typhoon Soudelor, and following President Obama’s declaration of a major disaster in the Northern Mariana Islands, I believe it absolutely necessary and hereby request an extension of the public comment period on the CJMT Draft EIS from its present closing date of Aug. 17, 2015, 5pm (Eastern Time).”

Dentons

With the extension, the consulting group that the CNMI government hired to review the DEIS will have “more time to gather public comments,” according to Wesley Bogdan, the governor’s counsel for military activities.

Bogdan said Dentons previously submitted an executive summary of its initial findings on the DEIS.

In its summary, Dentons cited the inadequacies of the impact statements. The documents were also described as “too huge.”

Dentons US LLC and its partner, Environmental Science Associates, have been contracted by the CNMI government in June to review the DEIS. The group is also expected to give legal advice to the government.

This is the second extension granted by the U.S. Department of Defense. The first extended the Aug. 3 deadline to Aug. 17 following the “network blackout” caused by the severing of IT&E’s fiber optic cable between Saipan and Tinian last month.