Was Army Corps negligent?

The Issue: The contamination of Tanapag Village with PCBs and other cancer-causing toxins should have been cleaned-up since 1961.

Our View: The Army Corps of Engineers seems negligent of its fiduciary responsibility to remove lethal contaminants from Tanapag Village.

In 1961, there was a change of custodian between the US Departments of the Navy and Interior. The former exited after using the island as a training ground for some Chinese soldiers, a program under the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

During its stint here, it secured prime land for its constituency, including the opening of dump areas in various parts of the island. In recent years, PCBs were discovered immediately west of the Tanapag Elementary School (old cemetery and social hall). Most recently, PCBs were found in the cemetery located south of the village. There’s also the dump in upper Tanapag immediately behind its water source (water pump and blue tank) inundated with rusty 50 gallon drum cans.

There are 25 sites identified as areas used by the US Military as dumping ground to which the Army Corps of Engineers, by federal law, must prepare a Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) to begin a feasibility study and subsequent clean-up. Since 28 years ago, the Army Corps has done one such RAB and clean-up program somewhere in
Chalan Kanoa Village. We don’t know specifically what the materials were that necessitated their removal, but the Army Corps came in and did its job forthwith.

If anything, it is perplexing why the Army Corps seems lackadaisical in its fiduciary responsibility to establish RAB for sites in Tanapag Village even after having removed PCBs right in the middle of the village. We understand that the Division of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has urged the Army Corps for the establishment of RAB in order that the PCB contamination in Tanapag is cleaned up once and for all. We haven’t seen such program established as yet and it boggles the mind when would the Army Corps step-in and fulfill its fiduciary responsibility. Do we need to bring this up to the US Congressional level before action is taken on a military mess that has allegedly ruined the health of the village people?

There’s also the dire need to conduct an independent study to determine the contents of 50 gallon drum cans found in the old military dump in upper Tanapag, specifically, whether the materials are in fact carcinogenic and more importantly, whether it finally percolated down to the water lenses that feeds such basic need (water) to the people in Tanapag Village. For now, the villagers are left without solid answers to toxic materials that pose a severe threat to their health and well-being. Perhaps the Army Corps needs to demonstrate its agility with the same fervor it reviews proposed projects for these isles. The people of the village deserve nothing less than prompt action from the Army Corps. Si Yuus Maase`!