Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) calls the U.S. Department of Navy\u2019s recent decision to order a supplemental environmental impact statement for live-fire training and bombing on Tinian and Pagan a \u201cwin\u201d for the Northern Marianas.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose are small victories, but one after another it helps,\u201d Sablan said in an interview last week. \u201cAnd that\u2019s why people who disagree with the NEPA process need to understand that the NEPA process is making all of this reviews and re-reviews and change of plans\u201d possible, he said.<\/p>\n
The Navy two weeks ago called for a second round of review for the \u201cCNMI Joint Military Training\u201d or CJMT plans.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout the NEPA process, the military doesn\u2019t have to explain any of its actions,\u201d Sablan said. \u201cWhether it\u2019s the [Marianas Islands Training and Testing EIS], or the [Divert Airfield Project EIS], or the CJMT,\u201d he added, referring to other voluminous impact statements that the CNMI has been forced to review in recent years.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo years ago, I was allowed to sit in with the [U.S. House of Representatives] Armed Services Committee and we were talking about some of these environmental impact studies and my suggestion then was why are you having different environmental impact studies? Whether it\u2019s MITT, or CJMT, or the Divert\u2014why don\u2019t you just have one? So [that] it\u2019s easier for us in the Northern Marianas to address\u2026instead of these different parts.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026This divide and conquer thing is not in the best interest of the Northern Marianas,\u201d Sablan added.<\/p>\n
The CJMT is the fifth major military training project proposed for the CNMI in recent years, among others, like the U.S. Air Force\u2019s proposed divert airfield project, the U.S. Navy\u2019s expansive bombing and sonar training projects, and the \u201cGuam Buildup EIS,\u201d which when first announced included Tinian in its scope.<\/p>\n
“Each of the five projects has involved the preparation of an EIS,” Dentons, a firm hired by the CNMI to review the CJMT project, has said. “None of the five EIS fully evaluates any alternatives located outside the CNMI. Based on the documents we have reviewed to date, it appears the Navy has consistently singled out the CNMI for inappropriate treatment under NEPA.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) calls the U.S. Department of Navy\u2019s recent decision to…<\/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":[3539,26,2272,2307],"class_list":["post-212700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cjmt","tag-cnmi","tag-deis","tag-nepa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212700","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=212700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212700\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}