by Lannie Walker

Guam - Senator Tina Muna Barnes, representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency, Bali Steel, and the Mayors Council were present during a press conference on the Nagasgas Program at the Yona Mayors Office. Yona is the third village in the cleanup line up.

Santa Rita and Barrigada were the first two. Mayor Jose Terlaje says the cleanup will cost $5,000 to $7,000 a day and he say he expects the cleanup in Yona to take about a month. According to Joe Sicad, director of Bali Steel, 600 to 700 tons of waste has been removed in the three villages, including 400 abandoned vehicles. Sicad says the waste is being shipped off-island to Taiwan.

According to Mayors Council executive director Angel Sablan $600,000 has been spent on the project thus far. He says the total cost could run up to $5.7 million. "We are all here because our main concern is to get Guam cleaned up and to keep it green and the first thing is to get all the abandoned vehicles out of Guam, the loose metals, the tires the batteries," he explained.

Senator Tina Muna Barnes adds they are fine tuning project to save costs and prolong project. In addition, the EPA is planning to kickoff a household hazardous waster cleanup in conjunction with Nagasgas in order to discard of items not included in the program.