With the U.S. changing its distribution of troops moving from Okinawa, Hawai’i is expected to get up to 2700 Marines, while Guam will get less than originally projected. USA Today Reported that “Military rethinking location of Guam Marine base” (May 2, 2012):
The federal government is rethinking where to put a Marine base on Guam now that fewer Marines will be moving to the U.S. territory from Okinawa, Japan.
With fewer troops and families to house, a local Marine base could be smaller than previously thought, Joe Ludovici, the executive director of the military’s Joint Guam Program Office, said Wednesday.
New environmental impact reviews will have to be done:
New draft and final environmental impact statements will be released in 2014. A decision on where to put the base and firing range would come the following year.
And the ancient Chamorro village site in Pagat may yet dodge the bullet(s):
The changes could also lead to a new proposed location for a firing range.
Under the new plan, 5,000 Marines and 1,300 dependents will move to Guam. The old plan included 8,600 Marines and as many as 12,000 dependents.
The military had been planning to build the Marine base on about 680 acres of civilian land in Dededo, in northern Guam.
The firing range was to go on the site of an ancient village, Pagat, also in northern Guam. The Navy began reevaluating this idea last year after a lawsuit alleged it had failed to adequately consider other locations that would affect the environment and historical sites less.
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