‘CRM, DEQ may have violated their own regs’

Members of the House Committee on Natural Resources yesterday said the Coastal Resources Management and the Division of Environmental Quality may have violated the very same environmental laws, regulations and procedures they are mandated to enforce when they allowed clearing of 62 hectares of public lands in Marpi in April without a major siting permit, only to waive the permit requirements on Friday.

“If we can’t entrust them [CRM, DEQ] with protecting our environment, who can we trust?” asked House Vice Speaker Joseph P. Deleon Guerrero.

The area is being cleared of unexploded World War II ordnance by a Department of Public Lands contractor, Ampro.

At yesterday’s meeting between regulatory agencies and the House committee, lawmakers raised concern about CRM director Dr. Jon Joyner’s May 15 letter to Public Lands Secretary John Del Rosario waiving the requirements of a major siting permit for the project.

“The CRM director seems to be contradicting himself when he said there’s no violation of any regulations and then saying land clearing commenced without obtaining an application for a major siting permit. In the same letter, he waived requirements for the permit…It seems the letter is to cover up something,” said Deleon Guerrero.

Deleon Guerrero, along with House Natural Resources Committee chair Rep. Ramon Tebuteb, Reps. Tina Sablan, Joe Reyes, Diego Benavente, David Apatang and House Speaker Arnold I. Palacios, expressed frustration over not getting direct responses from Joyner and DEQ director Frank Rabauliman during the meeting in the House chamber.

As a result, the committee will put in writing all questions addressed to the regulatory agencies, Tebuteb said.

“If we are still not satisfied with the answers, then that’s the time we’d call for an oversight hearing, subpoena documents, and have them take the oath,” he said.

In one instance, Benavente asked Joyner whether he has the authority under CRM law to waive the requirements for a major siting permit, to which Joyner responded with a long statement about CRM’s functions and responsibilities.

Sablan said the question is answerable by “yes” or “no.”

Joyner, when asked by reporters for comment after the meeting, said there’s no determination made that the project needs a major siting permit.

In his one-page letter to the DPL secretary on Friday, Joyner said the CRM One State DEQ Earthmoving and Erosion Control Application Review Form dated Feb. 1, 2008, indicated that a CRM major siting permit would be required for the project.

The review form also advised DPL to visit the CRM office and obtain a permit application for the proposed project, prior to starting any earthmoving activity.

“Despite these two cautions, the project commenced without obtaining an application for a CRM permit,” said Joyner in his letter on Friday.

Joyner’s letter also said the “One Start agencies individually and collectively critically assessed the potential threats posed by the proposed project and then incorporated adequate and sufficient pro-environmental conditions in an ‘Amended One Start Permit’ issued to DPL.”

“The controls in the amended permit for monitoring the project amply reduce the threats of the project and thereby satisfy CRMO regulatory concerns. Therefore, CRM hereby informs you that an application for a CRM permit in this instance is not required,” Joyner told the DPL secretary.

Ray Mafnas, senior policy adviser to Gov. Benigno R. Fitial, recommended that all permitting agencies get back together and come up with a solution to the Marpi clearing project.

Deleon Guerrero said he’s alarmed that CRM has not issued a cease and desist order against DPL or its contractor when it found out that the contractor began earthmoving activity in Marpi without a major siting permit from CRM.

“And then CRM waived the requirements so that the project will continue,” he said.

Deleon Guerrero was a former Historic Preservation Office director and therefore he sat on the CRM Regulatory Agencies Board, for 15 years.

“In my 15 years, I’ve never seen an action by CRM like this,” he said.

Rep. Joe Reyes asked whether Joyner would have waived the requirements of a major siting permit if the applicant were a private entity, but his questioning was cut by Tebuteb to give a chance for other members to ask questions.

House Speaker Arnold Palacios said everybody could move on if only there’s admission that there’s a breakdown in the process of permitting the Marpi project.

“There should have been a major siting permit. …We’re finding out now that the contractor is going to change methodology of clearing after clearing one area. That’s good, but agencies should have made the recommendations from the beginning,” he said.

Palacios was also a former Department of Lands and Natural Resources secretary and was on the CRM board, and he is knowledgeable about permitting procedures.

Some 62 hectares of land in Marpi are being cleared of unexploded World War II ordnance, using U.S. Environmental Protection Agency brownfields funding granted to DPL.