PCB CONTAMINATION MOU eyed for Tanapag cleanup
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the CNMI government have agreed to draft a Memorandum of Understanding that will map out a detailed work plan on how to address the contamination of Tanapag, a northern coastal village in Saipan, with cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls.
According to Ignacio Cabrera, director of the Division of Environmental Quality, the MOU will also discuss ways on how to deal with the clean up of 24 more Formerly Used Defense Sites. A proposal has been submitted by DEQ in a recent meeting in Hawaii, but such plan will have to be finalized by both parties next month.
The U.S. Army Corps has scheduled a clean up of the Tanapag cemetery in December 2000 but has yet to say anything on the clamor of the local people to make an assessment of the village which has been contaminated with PCBs.
“They have not mentioned anything about going back to clean up the village because of financial problems,” said Mr. Cabrera. The establishment of a Restoration Advisory Board, which should include members of the community, will be discussed in the draft MOU.
A medical expert from the Agency for Toxic Disease Registry is expected to arrive next month to train the local doctors here. The Department of Public Health has asked ATSDR to carry out an extensive medical testing in Tanapag amid fears that residents may have been affected by PCBs.
Local doctors will have to conduct tests on blood, body fats and breast milk to determine whether residents have been exposed to higher levels of PCBs.
PCBs are a group of manufactured organic chemicals that contain individual chlorinated chemicals known as congeners. They have been used widely as coolants and lubricants in transformers, capacitors and other electrical equipment.
An unknown quantity of electrical capacitors were shipped to Saipan in the 1960s and are now being blamed for the unusual diseases that have plagued the community, as well as for the destruction of the environment.
Investigation showed that these capacitors were manufactured by Cornell-Dublier Electronics as part of the Defense Department’s Nike-Zeus contract for its ballistic missile early warning system radar installation.
