Guam - Guam lawmakers were briefed on the military’s buildup environmental impact concerns Monday.
The sum result of the meeting was that members of the island community should have more to say about the EIS.
With long announced plans to officially break ground for the first phase of the Guam military buildup set for early 2010, a variety of government and military environmental experts as well as consultants have been putting together the environmental impact assessment required by both federal law and the planning process. However, it was only today that the Joint Guam Program Office shared details of what was being found and how it might affect the final shape of the $15 billion buildup and its impact on ordinary Guam citizens.
“It’s the first solid information we’ve had on the EIS,” said Senator Judi P. Guthertz. At a legislative briefing with more than half the senators represented, JGPO’s John Jackson, Director, JGPO (Forward), was grilled by legislators eager for information and unhappy with the short amount of time that the public will have to comment on the EIS.
Presented to the lawmakers was the outline of a ten volume document that is expected to be thousands of pages long. JGPO said that the draft of the EIS would be out on November 20th. At that time the public and other interested parties would have just 45 days to offer further comments or objections.
Some material from the preliminary report already suggests impacts on non-military Guam residents: Plans are to drill deep wells to ensure water supplies on base. On the other hand, the military expects to pay part of the costs of expanding the northern GovGuam sewage treatment plant to cover its expanded requirements.
Access to information about the military buildup has been a source of frustration in local government circles. While some government agencies have received copies of EIS drafts, the most recent version apparently did not go to the governor’s office. On the other hand, governor’s staffers who were not provided with copies have been invited to a session in Hawaii later this week to help drafters of the EIS review it.
In the short run, senators were most unhappy about the limited time they’ll have to review the EIS. Senator Matt Rector complained, “We’ve got no expertise to analyze an EIS…There’s no way in hell we can do this in 45 days…” Senator Guthertz agreed, but promised, “I’ll go through the EIS word by word.”
Guthertz urged that all citizens and particularly government officials with environmental expertise be prepared to lend a hand to review of the EIS, which she said is “vital” to the future of everyone making their home on Guam.
[Present at the EIS briefing were: Senators Guthertz, Speaker Won Pat, Senator Ada, Senator Pangelinan, Telo Taitague, Matt Rector; Senators Cruz, Palacios and Respicio were represented by staff]. Pacific News Center
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