Divert EIS released; public comments sought

The U.S. Air Force releases today a revised draft environmental impact statement for a divert airfield project in the CNMI inclusive of three options for an airfield on either Saipan, Tinian, or on both islands.

The main selling point of this new draft is the “hybrid” option that military officials say spreads reduced operations to both islands.

The revised EIS comes three years after a first draft was released in 2012. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rated that draft “insufficient” due to its minimal assessment of severe noise impacts to Saipan residents.

This time around the Air Force removed the following from their divert project: runway extension, permanent navigational aids, aircraft hangar, munitions storage facilities, arm/disarm pad, tent lodging, and fighter aircraft operations.

The release comes a day after Air Force officials led by Brig. Gen. Andrew Toth—the local representative based in Guam for the divert project—concluded his trip to the CNMI to meet local officials.

A 45-day comment period begins today. The CNMI government, community, and other bodies have until Nov. 30 (Eastern Daylight Time) or Dec. 1 (Chamorro Standard Time) to submit formal comments.

After this period, the Secretary of the Air Force may announce a Record of Decision selecting any one of the three divert options. The Air Force says this time around they have “no preferred” alternative because they feel all alternatives meet their needs.

The Commonwealth Ports Authority—which owns land on both Tinian and Saipan airports—has a standing resolution that essentially blocks the siting of the divert airfield on Saipan. CPA has pointed to Tinian instead.

Barry Toves, CPA board director and chairman of its subcommittee on airport facilities, says he is hopeful the Air Force heard their concerns.

“The Secretary of the Air Force will have to make a decision, which one of those options, it’s up to them. But for us, we have the trump card. We will not approve any airport layout plan if it’s going to adversely affect the economy of the Commonwealth. We have a fiduciary duty to protect the Commonwealth Ports Authority and that’s the reason why we are here,” Toves told reporters on Wednesday.

Toves was referring to an airport layout plan that would have to be approved by CPA and submitted to the Federal Aviation Administration for approval.

“I am hopeful that the Secretary will allow us to be heard and address our concerns because the Commonwealth is just the most infant member of the United States of America. We are not even a state, we are not even 40 years old yet. We need for the United States to allow us to grow, allow us to self-govern…We are not saying we don’t want them to come in. Of course, we are all U.S. citizens and we belong to the nation but our islands are very scarce. So coming in and establishing monuments for endangered species, coming in and establishing for national defense—our people keep getting pushed out into the ocean. We have to strike a balance.”

“My concern there was we were going to have hardened armory at the airport,” Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) told reporters yesterday. “And have fighter airplanes, and now there will be tankers on both Saipan and Tinian. That will lessen the impact, the footprint and the ground.”

Economic questions

Questions on the potential economic benefits of the military sharing aviation fuel with commercial aircraft has been raised, but it’s unclear if there is any precedence for this right now, Air Force officials said this week.

Toves said they have to exercise their “fiduciary authority and responsibility” to CPA.

Toves spoke to reporters on Wednesday after meeting with Pacific Air Forces officials. The Air Force officials concluded their CNMI visit yesterday, after a courtesy visit to Gov. Eloy Inos. They also met with the Tinian mayor’s office on Wednesday.

“If they want to exist with us, there has to be some kind of exchange,” Toves said. “We need the funding for us to expand our airports, especially on Tinian. We don’t have the funding right now to do the expansion. We rely heavily on airport improvement project grants, and our wishes” are dependent on the approval of the FAA, which prioritizes security projects before infrastructure improvements that would cater to terminal buildings for direct flights to the island.

Citing the Air Force’s proposal to build landing ramps and fuel storage facilities in their divert airfield plans, Toves said the CNMI could “tap” into those facilities, noting the need for a future fuel farm on Tinian if the island were to realize direct flights from China, for example.

“We can submit our wish list to FAA, but FAA…decides which comes first. Usually security issues come first. But developing infrastructure that would cater to the terminal buildings and things like that probably would fall in the second, third priority.

“My question is…will the supply and capability be available for commercial” plans, he said.

PACAF Brig. Gen. Andrew Toth told Saipan Tribune after his meeting with Inos that this would be up to the Defense Logistics Agency, the fuel-buying arm of the Department of Defense.

“There may be some legal implications of why or why we cannot do that,” Toth said. “So when we got into the discussions, we would try to continue to work to try to see if there is any of that capability to share fuel, but what we can’t do at this stage is guarantee that, yes, we can share fuel or, no, that we cannot.”

Saipan Tribune asked if this fuel-sharing has ever been done in the past in other bases but Toth said they would need to do more research to see if there is any precedence that has been set in other locations.”
Toth noted that the Logistics agency “cannot compete with commercial resources,” meaning they are not allowed by law to compete with commercial suppliers by selling fuel to civilians.
“Saipan has the capability to provide commercial refueling of aircraft. And DLA cannot compete with those. So that’s part of the legal issues we’ll be dealing with. Whereas, Tinian does not have the commercial capability so there will be minimal impact for competing with outside sources,” he said.