Wednesday night\u2019s public hearing on a draft environmental impact statement on proposed \u201clive-fire\u201d military exercises in the CNMI brought out sentiments about the \u201cincalculable\u201d and \u201cirreparable\u201d damage it will bring to the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n
According to some of the comments, even experts will be hard put to put a dollar value to what will be destroyed once bombs are dropped and live munitions are fired on Tinian and Pagan.<\/p>\n
The U.S. military conducted the hearing on Wednesday at the cafeteria of the Saipan Southern High School to gauge public sentiment on its proposed military exercises.<\/p>\n
The more than a hundred attendees submitted written and oral comments on the draft EIS, and all of the comments\u2014at least the oral comments\u2014indicate that majority in the community opposes the planned military exercises.<\/p>\n
Most of those who gave oral comments also said they are not against the military and its goal of defending its insular areas, but are against the firing of munitions and dropping bombs.<\/p>\n
Questions were fielded to the military representatives who were at hand to listen to the public. To regulate the session, those who gave their oral comments were given three minutes each.<\/p>\n
A second hearing, this time at the Garapan Elementary High School on Friday, is also expected to draw a sizable crowd.<\/p>\n
No to Pagan bombing<\/p>\n
When it comes to bombings, the island of Farallon de Medinilla was often discussed. It is considered the smallest island in the CNMI and has been the target of U.S military bombings for many years.<\/p>\n
Many often mention the \u201ctragedy\u201d of the tiny, uninhabited island, and what it has become after years and years of being subjected to military bombings, this despite the presence of migratory birds and other marine and terrestrial wildlife on the island.<\/p>\n
Many fear that this also might happen to Pagan.<\/p>\n
For Rep. Vinson Sablan (Ind-Saipan), a representative of the 19th Legislature and the first to give a comment during the four-hour hearing, the military should give a clearer explanation of why it is choosing Pagan, particularly for bombing exercises.<\/p>\n
He said he is making it clear that he is not against the military per se, but he is opposing any military exercises on Pagan, which is under Precinct 4 that Sablan represents in the Legislature.<\/p>\n
Jack Mu\u00f1a, a community leader from Koblerville, echoed Sablan\u2019s sentiments, asking why bomb an island like Pagan, which is considered a \u201cvirgin\u201d island.<\/p>\n
Bruce Bateman, marketing manager of the Marianas Visitors Authority, said military exercises are \u201cabsolutely incompatible\u201d with tourism.<\/p>\n
Bateman emphasized that he is not speaking on behalf of the MVA but as a concerned citizen of the CNMI. \u201cOur tourism assets are tiny. What we have are friendly people, and 14 islands,\u201d Bateman said, adding that military exercises will take these assets away.<\/p>\n
Ron Smith, representing the Micronesia Islands Nature Alliance, said any chance of turning some of the islands of the Commonwealth into military assets, particularly Pagan, will mean taking away the CNMI\u2019s chance to cash in on \u201csustainable tourism.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said once military exercises push through, there will be no turning back.<\/p>\n
Keena Palacios, one of the several elementary students to stand and give their comments, said the military exercises would \u201cdisrupt the peace\u201d in the CNMI.<\/p>\n
She said like the other members of the community, she also wonders why the military would consider dropping bombs on Pagan where rare animals are found. \u201cWe do not want endangered species, like the Pagan dove, to go away,\u201d she said<\/p>\n
Janelyn Cruz, a sixth grader, said there are other islands that the military can use. She said why not find these islands and conduct the exercises there instead of Pagan, where valuable minerals and animals are found.<\/p>\n
Ecological damage<\/p>\n
For PaganWatch founder Pete Perez, once the military exercises start \u201cit is all over.\u201d<\/p>\n
He lamented that even now, islands that have been used for military exercises are littered with tons of waste, from ordnance\u2014which failed to explode\u2014to chemicals that continue to pollute the oceans.<\/p>\n
Liana Hofschneider, a leader of the Council for Chamorro Advancement, narrated that her husband, Richard Hofschneider, suffered cancer.<\/p>\n
While she said she did not blame the military\u2019s war activities on Tinian\u2014where her husband resided for many years\u2014she wonders about the damage that another military presence will bring to the island and what would be the effects of these to residents years from now.<\/p>\n
She cited a \u201cmassive bomb pit\u201d that continues to exist today.<\/p>\n
According to her, the U.S. military had three nuclear bombs during World War II and two of those were dropped on Japan.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are now wondering where the third bomb is,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Hidden jewel?<\/p>\n
For CNMI resident and athlete Steven Johnson, the military\u2019s draft is \u201cdifficult to digest,\u201d and it is apparent that the study is \u201cbloated and sloppy.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also said while the study involved numerous surveys of flora and fauna, there were no attempts to involve the community in the ongoing study. He added that it seems the study was conducted \u201cin secrecy.\u201d<\/p>\n
It has been reported that the draft EIS was conducted for many years and involved millions of dollars in resources.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the most interesting comment on what Pagan has\u2014in terms of natural resources\u2014came from Herman A. Cabrera, who said studies done on Pagan showed its promise as a major source of \u201cpozzolan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Waving a copy of his report, pozzolan, Cabrera said, is a valuable raw material that can be used for the construction of highways, dams, bridges, docks, and sewer systems, among others.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are millions, if not over $1 billion worth of pozzolan at the north part of Pagan island. This pozzolan is a high quality natural mineral and is in fact, the best in the world,\u201d Cabrera said, citing studies from Guam and Taiwan.<\/p>\n
In an interview with Saipan Tribune while the hearing took a short recess, Cabrera said \u201cthere are about 69.2 million metric ton of pozzolan\u201d found on the island.<\/p>\n
He said instead of military activities, perhaps the government can focus on developing this sustainable resource. \u201cNo to military activities on Pagan. Pozzolan is one our greatest valuable natural resources in the CNMI,\u201d Cabrera said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wednesday night\u2019s public hearing on a draft environmental impact statement on proposed \u201clive-fire\u201d military exercises…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94,4],"tags":[26,200,190,44],"class_list":["post-200571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines","category-local-news","tag-cnmi","tag-military","tag-natural","tag-study"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200571","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\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200571\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}