Federal agencies vow to assist in PCB woes

Various federal agencies have pledged to pool together the much-needed resources to assist the Department of Public Health in conducting the medical evaluation of Tanapag residents which would determine their level of exposure to polychlorinated byphenils (PCBs).
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry will send a group of health educators and medical professionals to help train the local people. Likewise, the Center for Disease Control, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer have also promised to assist DPH.
“Finally, we are pooling all the resources available together and we’ve started communicating,” said Public Health Secretary Joseph Kevin Villagomez.
Several federal agencies participated in the teleconference initiated by the health department to discuss the PCB problem in Tanapag, and most of them have committed to assist the Northern Marianas.
DPH has set aside an initial amount of $250,000 for the medical testing which has been included in fiscal year 2000 budget.
The department has delayed the planned medical testing to take advantage of the assistance promised by the federal agencies. Working closely with the various agencies, he said, will help the department and the community of Tanapag to achieve a clean environment.
“Giving us all the money right now will not address everything. We need to have the plan in place first to get all the things prepared,” Mr. Villagomez explained.
While DPH is taking the lead role in the medical evaluation of the residents of Tanapag, EPA will conduct a risk assessment study of the whole village with the assistance of the Division of Environmental Quality. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineer has yet to clean up the Tanapag cemetery which has been ordered closed by the government because it is still contaminated with PCB.
It will be the first time that a medical evaluation will be conducted by the CNMI government among Tanapag residents after more than two decades of PCB exposure.
A clinic in the village is expected to be completed soon where some 3,000 residents would undergo the health evaluation. The laboratory analysis on the blood samples will be conducted in the U.S. mainland since there is no facility here capable to make the evaluation.
Mr. Villagomez said department would like to take this opportunity to provide health care to people in Tanapag village, many of whom may have not seen a doctor for many years.
PCB contamination in the village became an environmental and health problem when an undetermined number of capacitors containing PCB oil were left behind by the U.S. military in the 70s.
The U.S Army Corps claimed PCB contamination in the village has been removed since 1997 but the residents believe that the agency failed to carry out a complete clean-up of the toxic chemical.