Previous Story
Nearly $10M in over 10 years for contamination cleanup
Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has spent $9.5 million over the last 10 years to clean up hazardous waste left behind by the U.S. military in the CNMI.
The agency has also set aside $4 million this year for the cleanup of three areas contaminated with leftover military activities during and right after World War II on Saipan, the highest annual funding of its kind for the CNMI in recent period.
Sablan said work on three of the formerly used defense sites, or FUDS, is completed. These include those in I’Denni, Tanapag, and Kagman Airfield.
Nine remaining FUDS properties have been identified, all on the island of Saipan. These include Marpi Point Field, Naftan Bomb Storage, Naftan Ordnance Disposal, North Field, Ordnance Plan, Talofofo Hospital Dump Site, Tanapag Fuel Farm, Koblerville Naval Supply Center, and American Memorial Park.
“Although the U.S. does the work, the Commonwealth’s Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality is responsible for oversight. Our local community also has a role in identifying problem areas and pressing for action, as the Tanapag Action Group did so effectively in the 1990s to force a cleanup of polychlorinated biphenyl contamination in Tanapag,” Sablan said.
He said in Congress, every year, he supports funding the FUDS program to assure that the work can continue in the CNMI “until all hazardous wastes are removed.”
FUDS cleanups are done by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, while the U.S. Congress appropriates the funds through the U.S. Department of Defense.
Saipan was the site of heavy fighting between U.S. and Japanese forces during World War II. To this day, live ordnance and chemicals from the war are still being discovered in several areas of the island.
