Lawmaker urges CRM to stop Marpi site clearing

Rep. Tina Sablan yesterday asked Coastal Resources Management director Dr. John Joyner to issue an immediate stop work order on the ongoing Marpi clearing until formal public hearings have been conducted and until a major siting permit has been duly issued.

Sablan said the Marpi project, which involves the clearing of 62 hectares of land of unexploded World War II ordnance, “is proceeding in plain violation of CRM regulations” because of a lack of a major siting permit.

CRM, in a Feb. 1 CRM one start/DEQ earthmoving and erosion control application review form submitted by the Department of Public Lands, explicitly stated that the Marpi project constituted a major siting.

Sablan said this determination of a major siting for the Marpi project should have triggered an extensive public review process, including public hearings, as required for all major siting permit applications, before any land clearing should have commenced.

“Unfortunately, and for reasons I do not yet understand, massive land clearing began at the Marpi project site nevertheless without a major siting permit and without a single formal public hearing, and continues to this day,” Sablan told Joyner.

Joyner and other regulatory agency officials could not be immediately reached for comment as the letter was sent late in the afternoon.

Much public outcry and confusion have resulted, and many questions remain about the apparent breakdown in the local permitting process; the method of land clearing being used and its impact on an area of immense historic, cultural and biological value; the wisdom of the proposal to ultimately establish a homestead development in that area of Marpi; and the possible conflicts between an outdated public land use plan that has proven difficult to find, and the recently adopted Saipan Zoning Law of 2008, said Sablan.

DPL only obtained an earthmoving permit from the Division of Environmental Quality for the Marpi project which DPL has said is only to clean it up of war ordnance and not for homestead development at this time.

In her two-page letter, Sablan cited CRM’s own regulations defining “major siting” as “any proposed project which has the potential to directly and significantly impact coastal resources.”

The phrase includes but is not limited to “proposed projects with potential for significant adverse effects on groundwater recharge areas, cultural areas, historic or archaeological sites and properties, designated conservation and pristine areas, areas of scientific interest, recreational areas, and endangered or threatened species habitat.

Citing CRM regulations published in the Commonwealth Register in May 2004, Sablan said “major siting” also includes major urban or government developments, as well as any project with the potential for affecting coastal resources which requires a federal license, permit, or other authorization from any regulatory agency of the U.S. government, and proposed projects that modify the areas that are particularly susceptible to erosion and sediment loss.

“The Marpi Village Homestead Project meets all of the criteria described above from defining a major siting,” Sablan told Joyner.

The lawmaker also mentioned her telephone conversation on May 8 with Joyner in which Joyner agreed to call a meeting of the CRM Board to take up the matter of the Marpi project.

In a public meeting on the Marpi project last week, Pankaj Arora of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said there’s no benefit in stopping the unexploded ordnance removal now, and that funding for the assessment and cleanup had already been granted. EPA granted $550,000 in funding for the assessment and clearing of Marpi of war ordnance.

The Marpi area being cleared of unexploded war ordnance is large enough to develop approximately 500 homesteads. The U.S. military used the area immediately after the capture of Saipan during World War II. It was used to store thousands of tons of ordnance for the impending invasion of the Japanese mainland.