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EPA lauds NMI for new UXO bunker, bomb squad
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Posted on Nov 21 2004
The CNMI now has a safe storage for unexploded vintage ordnance and its own bomb squad that could detonate the explosives.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers unexploded vintage ordnance as wastes that pose imminent threat and substantial danger to human health and the environment.
Occasionally, the EPA grants the CNMI emergency permit to detonate ordnance, which are commonly found on the islands, being battlegrounds during World War II.
EPA officials led by the agency’s Pacific Islands Office manager, John McCarroll, lauded the CNMI Friday for the improvements in the campaign to get rid of vintage ordnance.
“Saipan has a safe storage finally for UXO [unexploded ordnance],” McCarroll said.
The CNMI government reportedly developed the new bunker near Saipan’s detonation site in Marpi, which is about one mile north of the Marpi landfill.
The government enhanced a cave to convert it into storage and installed a steel door in front of it by using prisoners’ labor, McCarroll noted.
The previous bunker was located along the road connecting the Last Command Post and Banzai cliff, which are both popular tourist sites on Saipan.
McCarroll also credited the CNMI for having a new 15-man bomb squad, which reportedly completed training recently through a grant from the Department of Homeland Security.
