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Saipan picks up military ships’ trash again
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Posted on Nov 16 2005
Saipan’s failure to accommodate wastes from visiting military ships has been resolved, opening the CNMI to more port calls, said the Armed Forces Committee of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce in a report.
“In any American’s perspective, save that of the career bureaucrats, it was an absurd situation of the highest order,” said committee chair Judge David Wiseman on the inability of the Commonwealth to accommodate the trash from visiting ships.
The problem stemmed from inadequate incineration facility at the airport to burn all the toxic and hazardous wastes that is usually unloaded by airplanes and vessels.
He said this problem culminated in CNMI quarantine officials, “under threat of serious violations by the U.S. government,” reportedly telling the Navy ships that they could not deposit trash on Saipan for disposal.
Wiseman said that three ships had been told that they had to take back the trash that they deposited on the dock.
“I may add that our government officials had no choice as the sanctions from EPA were very serious,” he said.
Had the problem stayed on, he said, “the Navy ships could have been a memory of the past.”
Fortunately, he said that with “the relentless follow up” with concerned government officials and Ambyth Shipping, “we resolved the problem and U.S. Navy ships are returning to Saipan.”
He cited that the submarine USS Louisville recently visited Saipan.
