Environmental groups oppose exemption bill

Various environmental groups have joined hands in opposing a bill pending before the U.S. Congress that would give the military special exemptions to environmental laws, that include a “blanket exemption” to kill migratory birds and destroy their nesting areas, even on Farallon de Mendinilla.

Twenty-one groups signed a joint letter expressing opposition to the Defense Authorization Bill, which was sent to the Congress recently. The groups include the Center for Biological Diversity, the organization that sued the U.S. Navy and Department of Defense to stop the bombing exercises on Farallon de Mendinilla.

“We strongly urge you to oppose any provisions in the Defense Authorization Bill that are designed to exempt the Department of Defense from the Clean Air Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Superfund (CERCLA), the Endangered Species Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, or the Marine Mammal Protection Act,” the letter, addressed to American congressmen, stated.

“No federal agency should be granted special reprieve from the laws which individuals and businesses are required to adhere,” it said.

Pete A. Tenorio, the CNMI’s Washington Representative, also said in a recent press statement that the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Readiness has included language in the Fiscal Year 2003 Appropriations Bill to exempt the Department of Defense from some environmental laws to improve military bases and bombing ranges.

Tenorio said the inclusion was in response to a request by the Pentagon, adding that this would effectively reverse the declaration of illegality by a federal court, referring to the bombing exercises on Farallon de Mendinilla. Tenorio expressed support to the move.

But the environmental groups, in their letter, stated that the military does not need “additional exemptions” to environmental laws, because “these laws already have specific provisions that allow requests by the Department of Defense for waivers in the interest of national security.”

The environmental groups cited various language in the Defense Authorization Bill that would exempt the military from certain requirements of different environmental laws, such as the Migratory Birds Treaty Act.

The illegality of the bombing exercises on Farallon, based on the order of Judge Emmett Sullivan, was based on its adjudication that the activity violates this law.

“The language proposed by the Defense Department would allow the department to kill migratory birds and destroy their nesting areas with a blanket exemption from the Migratory Bird Treaty Act as long as DOD characterizes its activities as ‘military readiness activities’. DOD could completely eradicate unlimited numbers of migratory birds and destroy their nesting areas without any assessment of biological impacts, oversight or accountability as long as those impacts are not the purpose of the activity,” the letter stated.

Farallon de Mendinilla, a 200-acre island located some 45 nautical miles north of Saipan, is an uninhabited island that serves as habitat to bird colonies. Among the bird species on the island, according to the CBD, are: Great frigate birds; Masked, Red-footed, and Brown booby’s; red- and white-tailed tropic birds; White and Sooty terns; Brown and Black noddy’s; and the endangered Micronesian megapode.

The CBD also said another protected specie—the Mariana fruit bat—also inhabit the Farallon de Mendinilla, a coral island with deep caves.