DEQ backs plan to close monitoring wells

Division of Environmental Quality director John I. Castro Jr. said yesterday that his office is inclined to support the plan of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to close more than 20 monitoring wells in different portions of Saipan, citing the lack of congressional appropriation for the remediation of formerly used defense sites.

Castro said the monitoring wells have deteriorated, making groundwater resources prone to potential contamination.

“It is my feeling that it is in the best interest of the CNMI to close these wells to prevent the potential for contamination,” Castro said. “People can just come in and drop in their hazardous waste.”

Castro said the wells have not been used for a long time. He said many of them have destroyed caps.

These wells are located in Tanapag, Kobler, I-denni, and the American Memorial Park, among other locations, according to the DEQ director.

Castro said he would meet with the environmental watchdog Tanapag Action Group. TAG has expressed concern over the planned well closure without remediation being conducted first.

Monitoring wells serve as supply for groundwater samples, so they could be analyzed for contaminants over a period of time.

However, the director explained that the uncertainty of funding for remediation of FUDS make it prudent to just close the wells. The DEQ first raised concern over the deteriorating condition of the wells before the Army Corps. The Corps then came up with the closure plan.

Earlier this year, the DEQ asked the Corps to work on the remediation of the KV1 water well in Kobler, which it believes to be contaminated with aviation fuel.

The DEQ expressed concern that the contamination on the KV1 well might spread to nearby water wells that partly supply Saipan’s household needs.

Active FUDS are those sites that the U.S. military or the Department of Defense had used for operations, excluding active battlefields.

The DEQ earlier said the Corps had classified the area covering the KV1 well as one that needs no further action, but the local environmental agency asked the federal agency to re-evaluate its decision since 2001.

Sometime in July last year, the DEQ unearthed at least two gallons of fuel from the well that was believed to be part of the military’s airfield during World War II. The DEQ got the fuel from the 180-foot deep well in a two-day experiment.

According to DEQ environmental planner Ray Masga the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. discovered the contamination after it drilled KV1 as an exploratory well in 1992.