US military shares revised plans for the CNMI

Several community members joined U.S. military representatives last Tuesday evening at the Crowne Plaza Resort Saipan in Garapan for the first of two CNMI Joint Military Training update meetings to learn more about the U.S. military’s plans for the region.

At the start of the meeting at the Hibiscus Hall, community members were able to go around the room and get more information on the CJMT, the U.S. military’s proposed training on Tinian and the Environmental Impact Statement draft updates, and changes. After the walkthrough, members of the community got to express their concerns, and also ask their questions with leading military personnel at the event.

After having already conducted meetings on Rota and Tinian, Maj. Gen. Mark Hashimoto of the U.S. Marine Corps said that the meetings have gone very well.

“They’ve been very valuable and they showed that while we’ve addressed a lot of the issues of concern, there’s still a lot of things we have to figure out the answer to. Some of the things that have come up with consistency are biosecurity, solid waste, the aquifer…so those are things that are going to have to require creative solutions. …We’re very, very grateful for the public coming out here and making their continued concerns notable.”

He said he is very happy that the community is sharing its thoughts and hearing of the changes that need to be made to the original draft. “The team and I could not be more pleased than to share this collaboratively developed information that we’ve been developing with the CNMI over the last few years. We wanted to share the information that we’ve been sharing with elected leaders. We’ve come a long way. We listened to the voices of the people of the CNMI and we think the information we have will provide the public with good understanding of what are the proposed action for the enhanced training on Tinian. …When the draft EIS is published about a year from now, they will be able to have all the information digested so that they provide formal input to the Environmental Impact Statement process in about a year.”

He said “What we would like the community to know is that their voices were heard and we are very grateful for the fact that their leadership as well as the general public stepped up and let us know what their thoughts were.”

He said that, in the process, of coming up with the draft CJMT, they considered a wide variety of stakeholders, including inner-island commuters, people who do subsistence activities, boaters, fishermen, divers, tourists, cultural practitioners, and more and tried to develop a concept that had the least amount of impact on stakeholders. Ultimately, he said, they tried to develop a concept that accounted for the interests of the people on the island of Tinian.

Hashimoto also shared what has changed in the draft EIS since it was first published. Now there will be:

No training activities on Pagan;

No use of artillery or aviation;

No extensive range footprint on delivered munitions on Tinian (i.e., no 14 live-fire ranges);

No amphibious landing ramps, which would’ve caused coral damage;

No high hazard impact areas;

No activities that impede commercial air traffic.

“I would like to add that we don’t have the need for what is referred to as ‘special use airspace’ and the significance of that is that Star Marianas will be able to operate in the same manner that it does today with this proposed enhanced training concept,” Hashimoto noted.

In the current proposed training concept, it includes ground training within the military leased area, two live-fire ranges within the exclusive military use area instead of the 14 originally proposed, landing zones used for aviation or ground training, aviation training in the North Field, and training support facilities and capabilities.

Because Environmental Impact Statements can be lengthy and sometimes confusing and overwhelming and even at times be provided an inadequate amount of time for the community to fully digest all the information, Hashimoto said their team wanted to go through a series of events where they’re able to share the information efficiently, so when it’s time for the community to formally input their comments, that they have enough information processed about the EIS draft.

The EIS draft will be released in the middle of next year before the revised draft public meetings start in the fall of 2024. Ultimately the estimated release of the final EIS will be in late 2025.

When discussing the importance of these training sites Hashimoto said, “The region is becoming more and more dangerous, and we are in the business of keeping the peace. That is our primary job, that is what we do every day through deterrence. Should deterrence fail, we have to be ready to fight and win, and when I say fight, I mean the entire United States military. …As I like to say, you are us and us is you. So many of the men and women from the CNMI serve in our Armed Forces and one of the things we need is to be able to do realistic training and that’s what the CNMI military training concept will provide our service members.”

The second meeting was held last night and similar information was also shared by the military.