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US Army engineers arrive
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Posted on Oct 29 1999
A Honolulu-based contractor hired by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will begin installing plastic sheets and crushed stones today to cover the area contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a cancer-causing chemical present at the Lower Base Cemetery.
According to Frank Ono, civil engineer of the Army Corps, installation of the temporary cap is expected to be finished on Saturday. Ono is here to oversee the work done by the contractor who flew in from Hawaii.
A day after Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio ordered the closure of the Lower Base cemetery, people still troop to the site to spruce up the graveyard of their relatives in time for All Soul’s Day.
Tenorio has expressed concern on the presence of PCB at the cemetery, where there’s a high concentration of toxic waste left by the US soldiers almost four decades ago.
The CNMI government is expected to set up barricades today to prevent the people from entering the area despite warnings by officials.
Tanapag residents have demanded an immediate cleanup of the area as they condemned the Army Corps for failing to ensure that the people are safe from the harmful effects of PCBs.
Bishop Tomas Camacho will say a mass at the Tanapag Church for the people in the village on All Soul’s Day instead of residents going to the cemetery.
Abandoned electrical capacitors in Tanapag resulted in PCB and dioxin contamination in the village, endangering people’s health. While the capacitors have been in the village since the 1960s, DEQ was only notified about the presence of these capacitors in 1988.
The capacitors were used then as boundary markers, roadblocks for driveways, windbreakers for barbecue sites and headstones. Studies show PCBs caused cancer in animals, as well as destroyed their immune, reproductive, nervous and endocrine systems.
Aside from the cancer-causing potential of PCB on human, people who have been exposed to PCBs for a long time have also experienced nose, lung and skin irritation such as ace and rashes, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. (Lindablue F. Romero)
