More details out on Pagan, Tinian plans

Visiting Marine Forces Pacific executive director Craig B. Whelden divulged Friday more details and changes in the military’s proposed live-fire training ranges on Tinian and Pagan, including a possible addition of another alternative to Pagan after hearing residents’ concerns in the past several months, even as Gov. Eloy S. Inos separately said he’s “pleased” with the regular consultations that now talk about “specific issues” rather than “generalities.”
There would be 400 to 500 U.S. Marines on Tinian at any given time during training but the facilities that will be built can accommodate up to 1,500 Marines. The facilities could be later expanded for up to 3,000 Marines.

On Pagan, there would be some 2,400 U.S. Marines at any given time also during training, but that is not every week either.

Whelden said the Marines originally intended for the training on Tinian and Pagan to occur 45 weeks a year but the Record of Decision may reduce the training frequency to only “16 to 20 weeks” a year through a “phased approach.”

“It’s because the day after we do the Record of Decision, we’re not going to be able to turn the key and put 45 [weeks]. We recognize that. Facilities won’t be built yet. They have to be contracted out,” Whelden told reporters, adding that the Marines may not even be in the Marianas from Okinawa because the scheduled move has been changed from 2020 to about 2024.

That “16 to 20 weeks” training frequency would last for years.

Whelden said the shelf life for a Record of Decision is some five years, so the military has to reexamine whether the training weeks should be changed to “40 to 45 weeks” a year.

The largest artillery that could be used on Tinian is 155 millimeters, and MARFORPAC has been consistent with this since last year.

MARFORPAC is the executive agency charged with preparing the environmental impact statement and overseas impact statement on the proposed improvement of existing and development of new live-fire military training areas on Tinian and Pagan.

‘Non-traditional approach’

Whelden, a retired major general in the U.S. Army, pointed out to reporters that MARFORPAC is taking a “non-traditional” approach when it comes to the Pagan and Tinian plans.

Among other things, the agency is regularly engaging with the CNMI through ad-hoc committee meetings, even though the typical process does not require them to do so.

“But we’re doing them because we know that there are issues that are very important to the people of the CNMI and we want to be able to incorporate those issues as we shape the alternatives and we’re doing that,” Whelden said in an interview after meeting with the governor on Capital Hill Friday morning.

Inos, in a separate interview, said the meetings and talks with MARFORPAC at the ad-hoc committee levels deal with “specific issues” rather than generalities.

“We’re actually really talking about issues now, individual issues. Tinian, for example—what are the various issues affecting Tinian, and the divert airfield specific issues. Pagan came up but it’s still early in the discussion,” he said.

Tinian Mayor Ramon Dela Cruz said the ad-hoc committee meetings tackled Tinian seaport and airport concerns on Wednesday, and cattle ranching on Thursday, among other things.

Record of Decision: February 2015

Whelden said the release of the Record of Decision has been moved to February 2015, two months after its original release date, for a couple of reasons.

“We’re doing that to make sure that it won’t lay on top of a brand new administration either [on] Tinian or here, if that in fact happens. [It] gives them little of a breathing time but also not to put the comment period right over the top of the holiday—Christmas, New Year’s,” he said.

Whelden said they’re in the analysis phase right now—“between the scoping and the draft preferred alternative announcement.”

Pagan modification

Whelden confirmed likely modifications on the Pagan plans, specifically the possibility of another proposed alternative.

Both the governor and Whelden recognized that Pagan remains an “emotional” and “touchy” issue. Some two-thirds of Tinian lands are under lease to the U.S. Department of Defense.

“We know that Pagan is a very emotional touchstone for the people of the CNMI. I get it so it begs the question, ‘what are the interests of the people of the CNMI, the Northern Islanders with Pagan?” he said.

Northern Island residents want to move back to Pagan decades after a major volcanic eruption on the island forced them to relocate to Saipan and other islands.

Whelden said initially, they rolled out the idea of using the whole island of Pagan for military training and other activities, but they have since “backed off” of that after hearing peoples’ interest in moving back to the island. He said they have been looking for ways to co-exist.

“If people are interested in returning to the island of Pagan, how can we coexist? How can…all people get back to Pagan through improvements on the airfields potentially, improvements on the port potentially, not putting the firing range in the east most of the island, which I recall the diagram has got two impact areas—one in the volcano area, another one in the middle. So we’ll probably going to roll out another alternative which removes that one in the middle so that all live fire would only occur north of the airfield,” he said.

He added that this retains the bottom portion of Pagan from the eastmost down to the south “in its pristine natural environment which is important to us.”

Whelden added that the things they have heard so far—including residents’ interest in fisheries, cold storage of fish, eco-tourism—“are all things that could be compatible use with military use.”

He said for eco-tourism alone, something that the military could probably help with is “by improving the airfield, by improving the port, so people could have access to the island.”

Environmental concerns

William “Bill” Torres, a consultant for the Northern Islands’ Mayor’s Office, spoke at length on Friday with reporters about what they believe is the environmental destruction of Pagan once the military starts using it for live-fire training.

Whelden said he would like to ask, “What do they mean by destroy the environment? Again, the only place military ordnance—which is bombs or artillery rounds or bullets—would land is in the volcanic area, not where you find any of the natural green area because the removal of that range in the south in that one alternative would keep that in its pristine environment.”

He said the U.S. military is a “very good steward of the environment,” referring to Army and Marine Corps posts and bases around the country” wherein endangered species live on and thrive in training ranges.

“And we would do the same thing with Pagan. So it’s frustrating for me to hear, people characterize our use of Pagan as destroying the island and using the analogy of FDM because nothing could be farther from the truth. We want Pagan to be in its natural pristine state and we would limit our delivery of any kinds of bullets, bombs or artillery to just that area in the north, which is all volcanic rock right now,” Whelden said.

Crawl-walk-run

Pagan will remain part of the military plan. It is where the military will bring together all the elements of training in the “run” phase of a “crawl-walk-run” approach to training.

“Crawl” or the small arms, individual weapons qualifications training would be in Guam.

The “walk” phase would be on Tinian where the military would put small units together and train collaboratively together.

Whelden said Pagan would be “where we bring it all together—air, sea and land like a dress rehearsal might be for a play [war scenario].”