While some are pushing for the immediate awarding of the pozzolan mining contract on Pagan, some lawmakers have expressed caution citing unpredictable volcanic movements in the Northern Islands.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan they go ahead with the mining project under this situation?\u201d asked Saipan Rep. Joseph Deleon Guerrero.<\/p>\n
The lawmaker, who had testified against an investor who is actively pursuing a mining contract on Pagan, indicated that he is already out of the picture.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve said my piece and it\u2019s up to the Marianas Public Lands Authority to make that decision (to award the contract). I have nothing to do with that,\u201d said Guerrero.<\/p>\n
However, he said that he wonders about the success of the project in view of the volcanic situation.<\/p>\n
Saipan Rep. Martin Ada said he hopes that concerned authorities consider such potential hazards.<\/p>\n
\u201cMPLA should not rush into this. They should study this,\u201d said Ada, who had worked as teacher on Pagan prior to the 1980 eruption of the volcano.<\/p>\n
The MPLA has received at least two applications from investors to mine on Pagan, in addition to the current permit holder that is in default, J.G. Sablan.<\/p>\n
The MPLA said it would take its time to assess each application, putting major emphasis on the commitment and financial standing of the company. <\/p>\n
Current applicants are Azmar International and Texas-based Consolidated American Energy Resources.<\/p>\n
This as the U.S. Geological Survey recently reported that the Northern Islands remains unsafe for settlement and visits due to potential threats of volcanic eruptions.<\/p>\n
It reportedly said that people should not be in the islands unless necessary monitoring equipment is installed there.<\/p>\n
The USGS would need up to $7 million to set up and operate such instruments.<\/p>\n
The agency currently lacks the money to carry out the project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
While some are pushing for the immediate awarding of pozzolan mining contract on Pagan, some lawmakers have expressed caution citing unpredictable volcanic movements in the Northern Islands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83080","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83080\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}