DEQ gets grant to deal with PCB problems

The Division of Environmental Quality’s application for an Environmental Justice Grant has been approved, paving the way for the implementation of a community-based program which will deal primarily with the problems surrounding the high levels of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contamination in Tanapag.

According to the project proposal submitted by US Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Specialist Kimiko Link, the Tanapag community will receive $20,000 for the establishment of the Tanapag Action Center.

This is the first time that DEQ tapped the Environmental Justice Grant which aims at ensuring fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, ethnic origin or socio-economic groups in connection with the implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies.

The local people in the village have already organized the Tanapag Action Group which has been actively involved in meeting with federal and local officials on how to carry out a cleanup of toxic wastes.

In empowering the local people, the community is expected to use their resources and skills to further protect public health and develop their environment.

Workshops will be conducted such as communication skills, community organizing/coalition building, conflict resolution, grant-writing/management, Web page design and updating, community rights, roles and responsibilities in regulatory processes.

These workshops will be scheduled in the evenings or weekends to allow more community members to attend.

The Center will be equipped with a computer (complete with Internet access, printer, scanner) digital camera and other sources of information (documents related to the site, aerial photographs, sampling results, regulations, guidance documents, health information, etc.). All of these are expected to help enhance the community’s access to and understanding of the information related to environmental and human health issues in the village.

A staff will be hired to work in the Center four days a week, four hours a day to make sure that the community can easily gain access to all the information.

In setting up the Center, the community will provide the furniture (a conference table, desk and chairs), an air-conditioning system and spend for the renovation of the office space.

Training test kits will be made available to the people to help the community understand how the PCB field test kits are used and results are interpreted. Split sampling will be performed and analyzed which will provide the community with their own data from a laboratory of their own choosing to compare results with the regulatory agencies’ sampling results.

Tanapag, a northern coastal village in Saipan, has been contaminated with high levels of PCBs, dioxins, petroleum hydrocarbons and toxic metals.

Community members have raised concerns on the health problems caused by the PCB contamination, abandoned fuel tanks and abandoned military dumpsite. After more than 30 years of PCB contamination in the community, the Department of Public Health has conducted health evaluation among the people in the village.