BECQ comes under fire at Rotary meeting

What started as a normal presentation by a Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality official turned complicated when Rotarians begin sharing their concerns about several developmental issues on island.

Erin Derrington, permanent manager for the bureau’s Division of Coastal Resources Management, was supposed to talk about BECQ’s permitting process during a Rotary Club of Saipan meeting yesterday at Hyatt Regency Saipan. In her presentation, she said that they’re currently involved in some regulatory updates.

“Some of the issues that were raised in conversation today were issues of stormwater, sediment management, and those are issues that BECQ is diligently working to address on both sides of the house,” Derrington said. “An organization like the Division of Environmental Quality has more specific programs that could attend to the sediment control, earth-moving issues, and water quality directly. We actually work really closely with them. We’re sister agencies under the same bureau, and we’re trying to implement best practices as we are able to based on science that will be good for the community developments in the long run.”

“It feels very encouraging to be receiving these passionate feedbacks. It means that the community is taking a vested interest in the management of these resources. It may be a little hard to take criticism, but it is constructive and there is always room for improvement,” Derrington said.

One Rotarian said, “You can look into these storm drains right now and you can see all kinds of crops growing in them. …There was a leak in Truong’s parking lot for two months. I contacted both the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. and Saipan World Resort but nothing really happened so I jack-hammered the parking lot up. Guess what I found—a high voltage line in a lateral trench, with World Resort’s water pipe through it. That’s illegal, you can kill people.”

“No disrespect to you [Derrington] but I’m not seeing any impact here. You’ve got all these agencies and stuff but nothing is being done,” the Rotarian added.

BECQ will have a public notice period until Dec. 12 and will be holding a public meeting on Nov. 16 at 5pm in their building to solicit comments and talk a little more about proposed changes. Several regulatory updates include streamlining the permitting process, finding ways to make things easier for people to build homes or to farm, and also encourage better building practices.