The U.S. military\u2019s possible plan to build groundwater wells on the two-thirds of Tinian land it leases were posed by military officials in recent ad-hoc discussions between them and the CNMI, confirmed a Cabinet member with knowledge of these talks.<\/p>\n
But CNMI officials also posed the question as to who has say over the groundwater under these lands, it was learned. They also suggested that the military find, assess, and rehabilitate existing wells left over after World War II in the northern part of the island, versus building new ones.<\/p>\n
A Marine Forces Pacific spokesperson in Guam was asked if the military had plans to construct groundwater wells to support future activity last week. The spokesperson was also asked to clarify who had say over this resource.<\/p>\n
The spokesperson indicated that this information would be addressed in the draft environmental impact statement for proposed combined live-fire and artillery training on Tinian and Pagan when it was released.<\/p>\n
Further clarification or context on these plans were requested but were not provided as of press time.<\/p>\n
Who has say over the groundwater? According to Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality administrator Frank Rabauliman, this would be a public resource.<\/p>\n
He pointed to the Commonwealth Groundwater Management and Protection Act that gives the Division of Environmental Quality oversight over CNMI groundwater.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that goes to anybody,\u201d he said. \u201cJust because you own that property doesn\u2019t mean you can dig in and extract as much groundwater as you can,\u201d Rabauliman clarified.<\/p>\n
Asked about management of this groundwater, Rabauliman said they would prefer that water used on Tinian be hooked up to the island\u2019s waterline.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we also realize the military may be too far away from the last mainline of [the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.]\u201d which may extend somewhere near the Westfield airport, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIdeally, if everybody could hook up to the water line that would be the best way for us to manage the groundwater,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
He said in their last ad-hoc meeting military officials gave a walkthrough on what they are considering and what they intend to do, heading into the DEIS due later this year.<\/p>\n
But Rabauliman noted that areas not included were wastewater and water.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had solid waste [management], but they didn\u2019t have wastewater and water and so that was highlighted,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The military was asked \u201cto come back with that considered,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause those are going to be issues that need to be addressed,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
For the bureau\u2019s part, Rabauliman indicated that rehabilitating existing wells might be the better option, as far as groundwater management goes.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut depending on where [military] facilities are going to be,\u201d he said. \u201cWe just need to look at that case by case.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saipan Tribune learned that groundwater wells were dug on Tinian for use during the war, but there was no clear handing over these wells right after the war ended and before the leaseback agreement was signed between the military and the CNMI in later years.<\/p>\n
In 2000, the U.S. Geological Survey rehabilitated 11 wells on Tinian, it was learned. Five were put in operation but are right now on standby. These wells are all on civilian property.<\/p>\n
But more wells may exist on the military\u2019s side of the fence, it was learned, and that is why the CNMI suggested that the military find these wells and rehabilitate them for their use.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The U.S. military\u2019s possible plan to build groundwater wells on the two-thirds of Tinian land…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26,2272,2273,200],"class_list":["post-192333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cnmi","tag-deis","tag-geological-survey","tag-military"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192333\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}