Greenwire: In a letter to the Navy last week, U.S. EPA blasted the military’s plan to move thousands of Marines to Guam, saying that the lack of infrastructure upgrade plans would result in raw sewage spills and a shortfall in Guam’s water supply.
In a six-page letter to the Navy regarding a draft environmental impact statement issued by the military, EPA also criticized the military’s plan to build a new aircraft carrier berth at Guam’s Apra Harbor, saying it would result in “unacceptable impacts” to 71 acres of a high-quality coral reef.
“The impacts are of sufficient magnitude that EPA believes the action should not proceed as proposed and improved analyses are necessary to ensure the information in the EIS is adequate to fully inform decision makers,” EPA said in its letter, dated Feb. 17. The letter was first reported by the Pacific Daily News.
The military’s Joint Guam Program Office said in a statement that the issues raised by EPA were “consistent with what we have heard from Guam’s leaders, local agencies and the public.” The office is committed to finding a solution by working with EPA and other federal agencies, it said.
The relocation plan, according to the letter, would involve moving 8,600 Marines and 9,000 of their dependents to Guam from Okinawa, Japan. Large numbers of construction workers would also have to move to Guam, likely boosting the U.S. territory’s population by 45 percent — adding another 79,000 people to its current 180,000 residents (Audrey McAvoy, AP/Los Angeles Times, Feb. 24). – DFM