The U.S. Navy\u2019s proposed \u201cMariana Islands Training and Testing\u201d appears to be consistent with local coastal laws, but matters of protocol and the impact of foot soldier training in Marpi are still being clarified.<\/p>\n
The Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality and the U.S military recently sent several letters back and forth on the military plan\u2019s consistency with local coastal laws.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne issue that we highlighted in our comments back had to do with the increased number of soldiers training in Marpi,\u201d BECQ administrator Frank Rabauliman said in an interview yesterday.<\/p>\n
He said the military initially came in saying training would involve \u201ca handful\u201d or a squad of soldiers. But that number has jumped to as many as 100 foot soldiers recently.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe requested for more information,\u201d Rabauliman said. \u201cThe challenge that we have is really we don\u2019t have data. We are just relying on their data as to what the full impact is going to be with the 100-plus foot soldiers.\u201d<\/p>\n
He explained that federal consistency would mean that there would be seemingly no impact on enforceable coastal management policies. But \u201cit\u2019s not an authorization for access\u201d to the training ground, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are simply saying your proposed activity will not have an adverse effect on the enforceable policies of the state. But again\u2026 it\u2019s not an authorization for you to go in there and do whatever proposed activity you want. That is a different process.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to make that very clear,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
BECQ federal consistency specialist Megan Jungwiwattanaporn confirmed the 100 foot solider number yesterday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey say the number of soldiers could go up to a hundred but it will really depend on whatever training schedule they are working,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd that would be contingent on them consulting with other agencies before planning the training.\u201d<\/p>\n
She disclosed the training proposed is near Cowtown.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re waiting for more information from them. We\u2019re interested in hearing more about procedural things. How do they plan to communicate with the CNMI government on planning these trainings? \u2026We are saying that they are not violating coastal management rules, but in order for them to train in Marpi they\u2019d have to talk to other agencies like [Department of] Public Lands or the Governor\u2019s Office,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
DCRM has issued a \u201cconditional concurrence\u201d to the military, essentially saying that the military is good to go with the MITT \u201cso long as everything they told us in their previous documents is true,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She said the military is wrapping up discussions on endangered species with the federal government, and they are good to go with the MITT as long as they treat corals and wildlife as well as they said they would.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The U.S. Navy\u2019s proposed \u201cMariana Islands Training and Testing\u201d appears to be consistent with local…<\/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":[880,3235,200,3236],"class_list":["post-194794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-becq","tag-megan-jungwiwattanaporn","tag-military","tag-mitt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194794","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=194794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194794\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}