The Senate yesterday asked the Department of the Interior to provide technical and financial assistance for the installation of a volcano early warning system in the CNMI.<\/p>\n
In a unanimous vote, the nine-member Senate adopted Senate Joint Resolution 14-10, which seeks DOI\u2019s assistance in implementing the \u201cHazards Assessment and Volcano Early Warning System for the CNMI.\u201d <\/p>\n
The plan was prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey. The Senate said it was made at the request of the Emergency Management Office and the Office of the Governor.<\/p>\n
Some House members earlier pushed for the adoption of a resolution supporting the USGS project so it could get funding from the U.S. Congress. <\/p>\n
Saipan Rep. Joseph Deleon Guerrero said the installation of the monitoring system needs urgent attention because it affects other areas outside the CNMI.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just a local issue but an international issue,\u201d he said, citing USGS findings that volcanic eruptions pose great risk to air traffic.<\/p>\n
USGS earlier said that there are some 25,000 flights flying over CNMI airspace in a year. It also said that more than 1 million flights of large commercial aircraft that transit from Asia to Australia and New Zealand would be affected by eruptions in the Marianas <\/p>\n
The USGS cited that a small eruption of Anatahan in 2003 produced an ash cloud that disrupted regional and international air traffic for at least two days.<\/p>\n
The agency said that assessing the hazards and monitoring the nine active volcanoes in the Northern Marianas would cost about $1.9 million per year for the first three years, $1.2 million in the fourth year, and approximately $500,000 per year eventually. <\/p>\n
The agency recently presented its latest report on the Northern Islands\u2019 situation and cautioned that the islands remain unsafe for settlement and even visits amid potential threats of volcanic eruptions.<\/p>\n
The USGS reportedly told House members that people on the islands would continue to be at risk unless necessary monitoring equipment is installed there.<\/p>\n
Based on estimates, Deleon Guerrero said the installation and operation of the equipment would not take place until two to four years. <\/p>\n
He said the USGS would need $4 million to $7 million to get the project running, and a $500,000 annual budget for maintenance.<\/p>\n
The federal agency currently lacks the budget to carry out the plan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Senate yesterday asked the Department of the Interior to provide technical and financial assistance for the installation of a volcano early warning system in the CNMI.<\/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-83404","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\/83404","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=83404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83404\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}