DEQ asks DPL to provide site for cemetery

The Division of Environmental Quality has asked the Division of Public Lands to set aside a piece of property which will become a temporary cemetery of Tanapag residents pending the clean up of the Lower Base Cemetery with contamination of polychlorinated biphenyls, a highly toxic chemical.

Since late last year, the CNMI government has prohibited the people from entering the Lower Base cemetery due to the high concentration of PCBs which poses high risk on the people’s health.

Ignacio Cabrera, DEQ director, said the temporary site would be used by the community in the northern part of the island as the proposed public cemetery in Marpi will not be available soon.

Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio is expected to sign anytime now the proposed new site for the planned public cemetery in Marpi after an initial measure was rejected by the governor due to unavailability and inappropriateness of the identified public lands.

Marpi has been chosen as site for the new public cemetery as an alternative to existing cemeteries in Chalan Kanoa, Tanapag and Capitol Hills where the Wireless Hill Public Cemetery is located.

So far, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has already installed temporary covers of plastic sheets and crushed stones to cover the area contaminated with PCBs. This was just to protect the people who still insists in going to the cemetery despite warnings.

Tanapag residents have condemned the U.S. Army Corps for the agency’s failure to notify the people immediately about the PCB and Dioxin-contamination in the village saying the presence of the toxic chemicals have been the source of the mysterious deaths for the past years. They also demanded an immediate cleanup to ensure that the people are safe from the harmful effects of the chemicals

A clean up of the Lower Base Cemetery in Tanapag is set to begin in December 2000.