{"id":212442,"date":"2015-10-15T06:00:51","date_gmt":"2015-10-14T20:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=212442"},"modified":"2015-10-15T06:00:51","modified_gmt":"2015-10-14T20:00:51","slug":"divert-eis-will-be-released-this-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/divert-eis-will-be-released-this-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Divert EIS will be released this week"},"content":{"rendered":"

A top U.S. Air Force official representing a proposed divert airfield project in the CNMI disclosed yesterday that plans for a divert airfield on either Saipan, Tinian, or on both islands would be released to the public this week.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.<\/a>
U.S. military officials addressed reporters after a meeting with the Commonwealth Ports Authority yesterday. From left to right are,\u00a0Col. Michael R. Cardoza,\u00a0Brig. Gen. Andrew Toth, and Roy Tsutsui. (Dennis B. Chan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pacific Air Forces Brig. Gen. Andrew J. Toth, along with other Air Force and Defense officials, met with Commonwealth Ports Authority executives and board members yesterday for a courtesy visit to discuss the proposed divert project.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe revised [environmental impact statement] is going to be released here within the next couple of days,\u201d Toth told reporters after their meeting yesterday. \u201cThe consulting parties have already had a chance to look at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A 45-day period for public comment will be provided after the EIS is released.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe initially had a preferred alternative,\u201d said Toth. \u201cAs a result of consultations with the government of the CNMI and through the Air Force, what we\u2019ve done is we\u2019ve pulled the divert alternative and we just have options that we can go down.\u201d<\/p>\n

The three options are a Saipan-only, Tinian-only, and a \u201chybrid option\u201d spreading the projects out on both islands to lessen impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo preferred alternative here this time,\u201d Toth said.<\/p>\n

In earlier impact documents, the Air Force had placed fighter aircraft and munitions storage capabilities. Instead, the Air Force plans to bring in 12 tanker aircraft to Saipan, two to four at any given time, for six to eight weeks a year, Toth said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve significantly backed down the impact here in the CNMI,\u2019<\/p>\n

CPA\u2019s \u2018no\u2019<\/strong>
\nA standing resolution passed by the CPA board last year essentially said \u201cno\u201d to the divert project on Saipan, pointing to Tinian instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are still in coordination with CPA,\u201d Toth said, when directed to the resolution. \u201cHopefully, as we pull this hybrid solution together, it is mutually beneficial to both the government here as well as the Air Force.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is potential out there that maybe the hybrid solution is beneficial to both the government as well as the Air Force,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Speaking of the U.S. Marine Corps plan to operate at the Tinian airport, Toth repeated that the divert and the Marine Corps plans were \u201cseparate actions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a [Department of Defense] perspective, yes, we are doing all of these things together. However, we are conducting these actions separately,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are all under the DoD\u2014and we are separate services there\u2014but if the hybrid solution is the one that is selected\u2026We can buy some synergies and the activities that [the Marine Corps] may potentially do on the airport on Tinian, [to] pull those together as cost-savings measure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A top U.S. Air Force official representing a proposed divert airfield project in the CNMI…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":212445,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26,1198,124,1229],"class_list":["post-212442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cnmi","tag-commonwealth-ports-authority","tag-cpa","tag-marine-corps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212442","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=212442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}