Call for less spin and more facts

If Don Farrell, the spokesman for Azmar International, wants to stop false rumors and general ignorance about his employer, perhaps the first step should be full public disclosure of Azmar’s plans for Pagan. How about sharing with the public—whose assets you are asking for—some of the following:

1. An independent Environmental Impact Study

2. A detailed Operational Plan

3. Evidence that Azmar International is qualified to mine at all.

Ignorance is very widespread about Azmar International for the simple reason that they are a secretive organization. Their tiny website provides nothing but promises—no details as to how they plan to make good on these promises. They conduct their meetings behind closed doors and have provided virtually no documents detailing their plans and qualifications to the public.

I can provide some facts about Azmar. All of these facts are based on statements by the people at Azmar and documents that unpaid, concerned citizens like myself have collected and made available on the PaganWatch page at http://www.chamorro.com/pagan .

Here are some of these facts.

1. Kenneth James Moore stated that he plans to use money intended to build a World War II museum for mining operations. Here is an excerpt from his Jan. 18, 2004 e-mail to Cinta Kaipat, the president of the United Northern Marianas Islanders Association, when he tried unsuccessfully to get her support for his plans to strip-mine Pagan:

“I have been given $46mm via an Irrevocable line of credit directed to Azmar International to aid in the development of the Azmar Foundation. It sits at this moment in Credit Suisse directed for my disposition. The purpose of the foundation is to build a U.S. National War Museum. I thought I could use these monies to help develop Pagan.”

2. Kenneth James Moore has no mining experience. Neither does Don Farrell. Kenneth James Moore is a retired venture capitalist; Don Farrell is a retired high school biology teacher. Azmar International was created specifically for the Pagan mining venture. Azmar has no experience in mining anything.

3. Removing pozzolan involves the use of dynamite and heavy equipment. Soil in the Mariana Islands is generally shallow with areas of deeper soil and areas of exposed rock. It will not be possible to simply “scoop off the pozzolan” as Don Farrell says and leave the underlying top soil untouched.

Again, I refer you to the PaganWatch page on Chamorro.com. There you’ll find several links to pozzolan mining companies that explain how pozzolan is mined and show the bare rock surfaces that remain.

4. According to Moore in his open letter published in the Jan. 20, 2003 Saipan Tribune, Azmar will be operational in just 60 days:

“Frankly, unless our mainland research was critically flawed, we expected to be operational, shipping pozzolan to the United States, in 60 days or less.”

This obviously does not provide time for any kind of environmental impact study or plans to minimize the impact on the environment, avoid soil loss and the pollution of the surrounding waters. This does not sound like the ideas of an individual with any serious concern for the environment. It is ridiculous to believe that all the required infrastructure from building a dock and loading facilities, roads, storage facilities, housing for workers, etc. could be in place in that amount of time.

Let’s see that “mainland research.” I think it might be critically flawed.

Mr. Farrell made the statement that I categorized him as “a money-grubbing anti-environmentalist bent on destroying Pagan for personal gain.” I said no such thing; those are not my words; they’re Mr. Farrell’s. All I did was quote his own words to Ruth Tighe, which was published in the April 16, 2004 edition of “On my Mind.” No personal attack; simply a quote and a difference of opinion.

Mr. Farrell also said that I had made “a personal attract (sic) against not only me, but also Mr. Moore, the Mayor of the Northern Mariana Islands, the MPLA Board of Directors and their staff, the Governor and Lt. Governor, CRM, DEQ, EPA and the great majority of CNMI citizens”. Really? Or is that just a way to spin what I said to make it seem like a personal attack. No, there was no personal attack—just a public plea to public officials for the protection of the beautiful island of Pagan and a reminder that the long-term consequences of signing with the wrong mining company are not worth the short-term gain. Further, with no public involvement in the decision-making process and with closed door negotiations, there is no other way for concerned citizens to participate in this most important of issues than to make the debate public. And without this input, MPLA has only the information provided them from Azmar to base its decision on. I think you underestimate the Governor, Lt. Governor, the Northern Island Mayor and the MPLA. They’ve been around awhile—they know it’s not personal.

Frankly, the Azmar deal is a bad one. It’s not worth the little money it would provide. Eleven million dollars a year is not going to bail the CNMI out of its $100 million-plus deficit. Taking a chance on an unproven company with no real plan and no experience is taking a big chance with one of the CNMI’s most treasured assets. It’s just not worth it.

Peter J. (Pangelinan) Perez
Gualo Rai, Saipan and
San Francisco, California