$4M to clean up 3 Saipan sites

Nearly $4 million has been set aside this year for the cleanup of three areas contaminated with leftover military chemicals or activities during and right after World War II on Saipan, the highest annual funding of its kind for the CNMI in recent period. 
Saying that the $4 million is “a big step,” Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) announced that the total funding includes $2.645 million in unexploded ordnance assessment and removal in Marpi, which has been eyed for commercial and homestead development for several years now.

This also comes two years after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-Honolulu District completed excavation of some 3,337 cubic yards of soil on Capital Hill’s I-Denni or Edoni that’s contaminated with leftover chemicals from World War II, including polychlorinated biphenyls and lead, which cause cancer. That cleanup cost over $3 million.

“Four million dollars makes this a very good year,” Sablan told Saipan Tribune yesterday, considering that the CNMI got only $500,000 in fiscal year 2013 and $900,000 in fiscal 2012.

The money is available now for the cleanup of formerly used defense sites or FUDS, he added.

FUDS cleanups are done by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. U.S. Congress appropriates the funds through the U.S. Department of Defense.

The CNMI gets a total of $3.978 million for the FUDS cleanup this year.

Of this amount, $2.645 million will be used for the Marpi Point Field. Sablan said a study will “determine the extent and types of unexploded ordnances in the area that the CNMI Department of Public Lands wants to use for homesteads.”

DPL Secretary Pete A. Tenorio separately said yesterday that the funding will be used by the Army Corps to do a “removal and disposal of unexploded ordnance to clear the area as part of its effort to clear Saipan of World War II wasted.”

“But it’s not for homesteading purposes,” Tenorio added.

In 2010, over 12,000 pieces of unexploded war ordnance were removed from a scenic Marpi area where DPL’s controversial homestead project at the time was supposed to be built.

The cleanup of the 624,000 square meters of Marpi public land at the time and its end use plan were a contentious subject between private citizens and DPL since 2009 because of a lack of public hearing prior to the actual land clearing, its negative impact on a tourist site, and the lack of a major siting permit, among other issues.

Marpi has long been eyed as a future site for a homestead subdivision for at least 500 families. It has also been eyed for commercial development including the construction of new hotels.

The U.S. military used Marpi immediately after the capture of Saipan during World War II. It was used to store thousands of tons of ordnance for the impending invasion of the Japanese mainland.

Hospital dumpsite, Tanapag fuel farm

Of the nearly $4 million that the CNMI will get for FUDS cleanup this year, $985,000 will be used to clean up a former hospital dumpsite located at the Kingfisher Golf Course. A study will determine the extent of contamination and whether there is any risk to human health, Sablan said.

Sablan said the remaining $348,000 includes the removal of 17 above-ground fuel storage tanks in Tanapag, and then a study of any remaining contamination in the village.

The Tanapag Fuel Farm, built in the mid- to late-1940s, was used by the U.S. Navy to provide fuel for ships and aircraft during World War II and through the 1950s, after which the tanks were abandoned.

Historical information suggests there were up to 42 tanks that held different types of gas and oil. An Army Corps survey conducted in 1998 revealed that 25 tanks were still visible on the ground. Six were removed in 2006, the CNMI government said earlier.

At one point, the CNMI had about two dozen sites on the FUDS list.

“At least 11 have been cleared, and the Army Corps is working through the rest, fixing the most dangerous ones first,” Sablan said.

Because sites are selected this way, Sablan does not have any particular say in which sites get worked on.

“What I can do is push for as much money as possible to be appropriated for the entire FUDS program as I have done again this year in programmatic requests. The more money the Army Corps has, the faster it can clean up sites in the Northern Marianas and throughout our country,” Sablan said.

The remaining FUDS in the CNMI that require remediation include the Koblerville Naval Supply Center, Naftan bom storage, Naftan ordnance disposal, North Field, and ordnance plan.

To date, the costliest FUDS cleanup in the CNMI was a $20 million PCB contamination cleanup in Tanapag completed in 2003, involving 40,000 tons of PCB-contaminated soil. The Army Corps treated the contaminated soil in Tanapag onsite and shipped the treated soil to the U.S. mainland.

Saipan was the site of heavy fighting between U.S. and Japanese forces during World War II. To this day, live ordnance and chemicals from the war are still being discovered in several areas of the island.