EPA: Junk cars in the NMI still a problem

The proper disposal of hundreds of junk cars and abandoned vehicles in the CNMI remains a problem in the Commonwealth, according to Environmental Protection Agency Region IX representatives.

EPA Pacific Islands Office manager John McCarroll said Friday that junk car disposal poses an environmental hazard if not resolved right away.

DEQ director Frank Rabauliman agreed, saying that his program officers are right now dealing with the problem.

“DEQ has been tackling that concern,” said Rabauliman, adding that his office is planning to involve the “stakeholders” in solving the issue.

Rabauliman said they have been meeting with CNMI leaders such as the Department of Public Works and the Saipan Mayor’s Office in coming up with the best solution to the problem.

Last year, the Senate passed House Bill 14-347, which seeks to appropriate $30,000 from the Department of Public Works’ Solid Waste Management Division revolving fund for the removal of junk cars.

The bill’s author, now Vice Speaker Justo S. Quitugua, earlier said the funding was badly needed “in order to rid the island of the health and environmental problems posed by junk and abandoned vehicles.”

Quitugua said the accumulation of junk cars in residential and government premises on Saipan has become a real concern, with motor oil and other fluids leaking from junk cars, and the derelict units themselves serving as nests for pests. They are also village eyesores. Under the Commonwealth Code, junk and abandoned vehicles are defined as “scrap metal.”

In March this year, Saipan Mayor Juan B. Tudela admitted that its rundown boom truck caused the delay in the junk car pick up project. He said that his office’s one and only boom truck finally joined the “big scrap yard in the sky” last year. The boom truck was previously a workhorse that helped the Mayor’s Office haul junk vehicles on the island and deliver them to the junk depot in Lower Base.

It was reported last year that there are about 15,000 abandoned vehicles in several sites in the CNMI, which could pose a health and environmental hazard, according to former Department of Public Works Division of Solid Waste Management program manager Robert Jordan.

The problem is compounded by the lack of a place to dispose of these junk and abandoned vehicles because there are not enough sites on the island.