Option to ship Tinian solid waste to Saipan

Marine Forces Pacific executive director Craig B. Whelden said that moving solid waste from Tinian to Saipan where there is a compliant sanitary landfill is one of the options now being considered as the military plans to build live-fire training ranges on both Tinian and Pagan.
Tinian Mayor Ramon Dela Cruz separately said yesterday he supports this option of off-island shipment of trash, while at the same time pushing for a transfer station and recycling facility on the island.

MARFORPAC representatives and the Tinian mayor met last week on a host of issues concerning military plans on Tinian, and of those items is addressing the island’s solid waste.

“We’re looking at options to potentially take solid waste off the island perhaps and move it here to Saipan,” Whelden told reporters after a meeting with Gov. Eloy S. Inos on Friday.

He said that option calls for a solid waste transfer station on Tinian.

The Tinian mayor said if this option is pursued, he would ask the military to “initially” fund the shipment of solid waste from Tinian to Saipan, where there is a federally compliant landfill located in Marpi.

Tinian, just like Rota, operates an open dump that has been the subject of local and federal agencies’ health and environmental concerns. The Tinian open dump is located southwest of the island and near the airport.

Both islands have been planning for years to build sanitary landfills but funding issues, along with military plans on Tinian, have been stalling the project. Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality administrator Frank M. Rabauliman was earlier quoted as saying that the government has decided to scale back the construction of sanitary landfills on Tinian and Rota. They are now in danger of being cancelled, he had said.

Whelden said MARFORPAC will continue its dialogue with the CNMI on military plans for Tinian and Pagan, including the ad-hoc committee meetings.

He said whatever progress they had in last week’s meeting would entail “homework” for parties involved “between now and the next one [which] we’re tentatively scheduling for early May.”

Whelden gave more details about military plans to build live-fire training ranges on Tinian and Pagan on Friday, including a possible addition of another alternative to Pagan after hearing residents’ concerns in the past several months. Inos said he’s “pleased” with the regular consultations that now talk about “specific issues” rather than “generalities.”

On Tinian, there would be 400 to 500 U.S. Marines at any given time during training. On Pagan, the number is significantly higher—some 2,400 U.S. Marines at any given time during training. But the training could only be for 16 to 20 weeks a year, versus the 45 weeks a year that was initially planned.

A Record of Decision on the Tinian and Pagan plans is set for a release date of February 2015.

MARFORPAC is the executive agency charged with preparing the environmental impact statement and overseas impact statement on the proposed Tinian and Pagan training ranges.