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Residents meet for update on PCB cleanup
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Posted on Jan 31 2001
Tanapag residents are urged to attend a meeting scheduled today at the Tanapag Social Hall to update them about the ongoing PCB cleanup project carried out by the US Army Corps of Engineers in the village.
Community leaders, in a media statement, said residents would be able to raise any other concerns regarding the ongoing project during the scheduled meeting at 6:30pm.
The US Environmental Protection Agency has been in constant communication with the CNMI Division of Environmental Quality and the Tanapag Action Group regarding development on the cleanup project in the village.
Earlier this month, EPA collected land crab samples from the village, as well as other areas on Saipan, for another round of testing which will determine the extent of PCB contamination in Tanapag. The samples have been brought to Vermont.
Results of the testing, which is expected to be out by April 2000, will guide environmental officials on what actions to take in case the results would show high level of contamination.
Public health and environment officials are waiting for the results of the landcrab testing so that they can modify the earlier health advisory issued to the community warning them against the consumption of landcrabs.
DPH has asked the people to refrain from eating land crabs caught in Tanapag area after preliminary sampling results showed that five of the eight land crabs surveyed were found contaminated with PCB.
The preliminary land crab consumption advisory issued by DPH was based on very limited and preliminary sampling results on land crabs caught in Tanapag village, in and around the vicinity of Cemetery 2, by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
DPH said the advisory will remain until such time that the results from a more extensive sampling are available.
The land crabs taken were among the samples of food gathered last May 2000 by EPA representatives as part of the assessment on food and the environment in the village.
