The Military Takeover of the Marianas
- 25 Sep 2015
-
By Peter J. Perez
Marianas Variety
THE day will come when we will look back on these post-Soudelor days and nights with a mixture of nostalgia and sadness.
We will remember the damage to our homes
and possessions and the hard work cleaning and clearing debris, the hot
sleepless nights, the mosquitoes, the shortages, the lines and the
worry. We will remember how we helped and were helped, how we consoled
and were comforted, and how, together, with help from many, we endured,
we rebuilt, and we resumed our lives.
And from the vantage point of years from
now, we will also remember that while we were distracted, the U.S. Navy
moved closer to its goal of militarizing our islands and using them for
bombing ranges.
Even before the Navy began its move, the
U.S. military already had extensive areas of the Marianas under their
control. They occupied fully half of the northern third of Guam along
with huge areas in the south, including the island’s only lake. They had
most of the land around Apra Harbor, and numerous other large areas of
Guam that, together, make up a third of Guam’s entire land mass. Here in
the CNMI, they had a long-term lease on two thirds of Tinian, land
around Tanapag Harbour and the entire island of Farallon De Medinilla.
They had also managed to convince our leaders to allow them to anchor
supply ships off our tourist beaches.
Most of the Navy and the Air Force
presence up to that point involved active or potential military bases.
Military bases, although always controversial, are busy active places.
They bring jobs and opportunities to the communities that host them. But
starting in 2010, the Navy began to look at our islands for something
altogether different — live-fire training ranges.
The year 2010 marks the beginning of the
Navy’s series of proposals to turn the Marianas into the world’s
largest bombing range. That is the year the Mariana Islands Range
Complex or MIRC proposal was approved. The MIRC created a
half-billion-square nautical mile live-fire training range that
surrounds Guam, Rota, Tinian, Saipan and all but the furthest islands to
the north. The MIRC authorized live-fire on and in the land, air and
sea throughout the training range.
Soudelor winds began to blow on Aug.
1st, the day after the Navy announced its Record of Decision for another
proposal – the Mariana Islands Training and Testing or MITT Area. The
MITT doubled the area of the MIRC to nearly a billion square nautical
miles. It also greatly increased the level of the Navy’s deadly sonar
and live-fire ordnance testing and training in CNMI waters. The MITT
plan allows the Navy to damage or kill over 6 square miles of endangered
coral reefs plus an additional 20 square miles of coral reef around FDM
through the use of highly explosive bombs. It ups the rate of explosive
bombing from 2,150 bombs per year to over 6,000 bombs per year,
increasing the Navy’s bombing of FDM by roughly 300 percent.
On Sept. 2, 2015, while most of us were
busy trying to get water and file FEMA claims, the Navy signed the
Record of Decision for another proposal, the Guam and CNMI Military
Relocation proposal, approving a new Marine Base on Guam, a new
Live-Fire Training Range Complex or LFTRC and a separate hand-grenade
range.
Next in the Navy’s step-wise move on the
Marinas is the CNMI Joint Military Training or CJMT proposal. The CJMT
would allow them to use two-thirds of Tinian for their second highest
level of live-fire training range and to take the entire island of Pagan
and use it for their highest level of live-fire training.
Unlike the LFTRC, the MIRC and the MITT
that seemed far away, the CJMT proposed activities are entirely in CNMI.
It completes the Navy’s live-fire training plans, surrounding us with
live-fire ranges; on Guam to the south; Tinian in the west, FDM and
Pagan to the north, and all around us on and in the ocean.
The CJMT will have wide-spread negative
consequences on virtually every aspect of life in the CNMI; health,
environment, natural resources, economics, culture, historic
preservation, social justice, infrastructure, public safety and freedom
of movement. The military will have over 24 percent of our total land
mass and will dominate and control our airspace and maritime waters,
restricting our movement and activities from Guam to Maug. With the
CJMT, our local representative government becomes subjugated and
subordinate to the Navy.
The Oct. 1 (CNMI date) deadline for
public comments on the CJMT Draft Environmental Impact Statement or EIS
is nearly upon us. It is our last chance to voice our concerns before
the Navy publishes its Final EIS and makes its Record of Decision.
Public EIS comments are extremely
important because the Navy only has to respond to the concerns about
impacts to our lands, our waters and our people that are raised in the
comments. They don’t have to try to avoid, minimize, mitigate or even
consider any adverse impacts that didn’t make the deadline. Also,
subsequent legal action cannot be taken on impact issues that don’t make
the deadline. Not getting an issue into the EIS amounts to a free pass
for the Navy on that issue.
Through your EIS comments, you can
demand that the Navy thoroughly investigate and disclose all the adverse
impacts of their planned activities on our environment and our historic
resources — not just those they choose to consider, but the ones you
bring up. For example, you can demand a thorough scientific study of the
potential impact of years of explosive ordnance contamination of the
soil to Tinian’s underground fresh water supply. You can also call out
their failure to consider reasonable alternatives. For example, you can
demand that they thoroughly investigate and consider alternatives to
training that do not involve our islands and our waters.
It is not likely that you’ll have read
all of the Navy’s 1500-page Draft EIS and the many hundreds of pages of
highly technical appendices. But that should not stop you from asking
about any issue that is important to you. If the Navy addressed the
issue, they can say so. But if they did not, your asking can force them
to address it.
It is easy to submit comments. Just visit http://www.cnmieis.org/submit-comments.html.
The website makes it fast and easy. It also provides excellent and easy
to understand information on the Navy’s proposals and the shortcomings
and omissions of the Navy’s Draft EIS.
Time is of the essence; act now and submit your comments before Oct. 1.
http://www.mvariety.com/cnmi/cnmi-news/editorials/80265-the-military-takeover-of-the-marianas
