Senator revives call on feds for volcano watch

A member of the CNMI Senate has revived the chamber’s call on the U.S. government to provide technical and financial grants for the installation of an early volcano warning system in the CNMI.

Sen. Joseph Mendiola, chair of the Senate Committee on Fiscal Affairs, said the major eruption on Anatahan this week was a reminder to prioritize the acquisition of necessary volcanic monitoring system.

“We’ve passed a resolution urging the federal government to help us. We need to follow up on that,” said Mendiola.

Last August, the Senate passed Joint Resolution 14-10, which seeks the Department of the Interior’s assistance in implementing the Hazards Assessment and Volcano Early Warning System for the CNMI, which, it said, is a plan prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey.

The agency said that assessing the hazards and monitoring the nine active volcanoes in the Northern Marianas would cost about $1.9 million per year for the first three years, $1.2 million in the fourth year, and approximately $500,000 per year from then on.

In a presentation last year, USGS warned that the Northern Islands remain unsafe for settlement and even visits due to threats of volcanic eruptions.

The USGS said that people in the islands would continue to be at risk unless necessary monitoring equipment is installed.

The House of Representatives had also pushed for a resolution supporting the USGS project.

The House said the installation of the monitoring system needs urgent attention because it affects other areas outside the CNMI.

“It’s an international issue,” said Rep. Joseph Deleon Guerrero, citing USGS findings that volcanic eruptions pose great risk to air traffic.

USGS earlier said that there are some 25,000 flights flying over CNMI airspace in a year. It said that more than 1 million flights of large commercial aircraft that transit from Asia to Australia and New Zealand would be affected by eruptions in the Marianas.

For instance, the USGS cited that a small eruption on Anatahan in 2003 produced an ash cloud that disrupted regional and international air traffic for at least two days.

Anatahan’s eruption last Wednesday shot ash and gas up to an altitude of 50,000 feet, the highest historical level ever since the volcano’s first recorded eruption two years ago.

Ash and gas blown southwest by the strong winds covered Saipan and Tinian, preventing sunlight from penetrating the islands. Hazy skies and cloudy conditions were also experienced on Rota. Darkness persisted until around Wednesday noon, when the skies began to clear up.