Saipan Tribune

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Thursday, October 04, 2012

Mayor's Office says Marpi quarry site is 'too steep'

The Saipan Mayor's Office insists that the quarry site in Marpi, which they have been allowed to use, is “too steep” and might endanger the agency's lone dump truck.

Henry Hofschneider, special adviser to Mayor Donald G. Flores, said that this was the information they received from community members who know the former Camacho Equipment quarry next to the JG Sablan quarry.

Mayor's Office personnel have yet to visit the quarry site. Hofschneider they plan to do so within the next few days.

The Department of Public Lands issued in July a temporary permit allowing the Mayor's Office to extract coral aggregates at the Marpi site.

Prior to that, the Mayor's Office dug up its corral aggregates in Kannat Tabla. The site was closed off in April this year after DPL discovered that the Mayor's Office's permit expired in 2004.

The Mayor's Office extracts corals used for maintaining or improving secondary roads on island.

According to Hofschneider, the former operator of the Marpi quarry had excavated so deeply that they would have to determine if they can still develop other areas of the site in a manner that their “very, very old” dump truck can accommodate.

“We don't want to load up the truck and force it to climb the steep hill and then give up on us,” he told Saipan Tribune.

Hofschneider also pointed out that the distance between the Mayor's Office and the new quarry in Marpi is farther than going to Kannat Tabla, costing the municipality more for gas.

He plans to talk to both DPL and USA Fanter, which was recently issued a 10-year permit to quarry at Kannat Tabla, in a move that hopefully would convince them to consider allowing the Mayor's Office to extract coral at the Kannat Tabla site.