45 days to review buildup draft study
By Dionesis Tamondong • Pacific Daily News • October 6, 2009
Senators are concerned the public won’t be given adequate time to properly review and comment on a draft study of the military buildup’s environmental impact to Guam.
The Joint Guam Program Office yesterday gave an overview and update of the draft Environmental Impact Statement to several senators. The detailed study, consisting of 10 volumes and thousands of pages, looks at the potential consequences the planned military projects will have on the island’s environment.
The draft study is scheduled to be published Nov. 20 on the Federal Register, said Sen. Judith Guthertz, chairwoman of the legislative committee on the military buildup. Government of Guam agencies and the public will have 45 days to go over the study and comment on it.
The pending buildup includes plans to build a base for thousands of U.S. Marines, facilities for recurring visits by an aircraft carrier group, an Army ballistic missile defense facility and expansions to Andersen Air Force Base and the Navy base on island.
No project will break ground until after military officials issue a record of decision, which authorizes which projects can move forward. Guthertz said that authorization is expected in early January.
“We have to have it as early as possible so we can have as much time to review it,” Guthertz said. “We need every GovGuam agency to diligently review it, and we need a strong community response.”
Guthertz, citing JGPO officials, said the military is looking at operating its own water system, which would require digging for water wells.
But the military is planning to integrate its wastewater system into the local system, which would require expanding the northern sewage treatment plant.
Doing so would mean the military could help pay for the expansion of the wastewater system, including additional projects recently required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The federal EPA denied the renewal of two federal Clean Water Act waivers to the Guam Waterworks Authority, and will require Guam Waterworks Authority to apply secondary treatment for the Hagåtña and Tanguisson wastewater facilities.
GWA officials have said those expansion projects could cost about $300 million and would require steep increases to customers’ water bills.
Senators want copies of the EIS study available at public libraries and mayors’ offices, but making copies of the voluminous document is quite costly. Guthertz said JGPO officials will work to have electronic copies available and possibly have computers at certain locations or during outreach meetings so the public can more easily review the study.
The only local regulatory agencies that have had a chance to review the draft are the Guam Environmental Protection Agency, the Bureau of Statistics and Plans’ Coastal Management Program, the Department of Park and Recreation’s State Historical Preservation Office and the Department of Agriculture’s Division of Aquatics and Wildlife.
But Guthertz said every agency must have ample time to review it because the buildup will change the island’s landscape socially and economically — not just environmentally.
Source: http://www.guampdn.com/article/20091006/NEWS01/910060304/45%20days%20to%20review%20buildup%20draft%20study?GID=oT4HQqvTuzROZPx%20D8Agxf906MS7y2zwT7aluVVZmzY=
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