Military seeks public's input on plans

by Nick Delgado

Guam - The U.S. Air Force is conducting a series of public scoping meetings to gather input from the people of Guam and the CNMI about plans to either use the territory or the commonwealth as a landing site for their planes conducting exercises and humanitarian relief efforts in the Western Pacific. The military met with village mayors this morning to roll out their plan.

Military officials are calling the events "a unique action plan for the Air Force". While it's going through the National Environmental Policy Act process, officials stress that the proposal is not related to the military buildup. It's a plan to develop a divert field location that promises enhancements to an existing civilian airfield. Pacific Air Forces chief of the requirements branch Carol Gaudette said, "The proposed action is to identify an additional air field within the Marianas island chain in order to develop an additional divert capability to develop humanitarian and disaster relief capability and to have another location to conduct air force exercises from."

This means if Guam is selected as the site, then the Guam International Airport will definitely see extra traffic. That along with other concerns several like Barrigada Mayor Jessie Palican has since the airport runway sits in his village, as he said, "The impact of the noise as well as the environment making sure the flight pattern and other things that may go with that especially utilities, we've experienced this in the past with residents are concerned about flight patterns and safety."

HDR Environmental operations and construction program manager Edward Lynch says it's a concern they will remain on top of, noting, "One of the most important issues we have to deal with is noise; we understand that we will have to do a full noise analysis for the addition of these aircrafts. Noise goes directly connected with land use, and one of the mitigation you look at with noise is what your buffer areas are around your airport."

Lynch for about half an hour made the presentation on the proposal to village mayors today. The process will require an environmental impact statement and a record of decision. However, Piti Mayor Ben Gumataotao made his suggestion, saying, "If they have that open in Tinian then it will minimize our impact on Guam and that's why I recommend it to be over there, and hopefully the people of Saipan will accept it because they need revenue and I'm sure when they get that revenue they can utilize it for some other good purposes, but the important thing is minimize the impact in Guam and even in Rota."

It's the feedback the Air Force wants. Lynch says as of today, Guam's airport meets the requirements to serve as a divert airfield, and that Rota, Tinian and Saipan he says would first need upgrades if considered. He says they are working with the FAA, the Department of the Interior's Office of Insular Affairs, and the National Park Service,  Historic Preservation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife during the NEPA process to ensure concerns surrounding endangered species, cultural artifacts, noise and socioeconomic issues are addressed.

The Draft EIS will be released in April 2012 with public hearings to follow in May. Lynch says the final EIS should be complete by November next year with the Record of Decision to follow in December 2012.

Again, the scoping meetings begin this evening at the Barrigada Mayor's Office and will be held until 8:30pm. A second meeting will be held at the Dededo Senior Citizen's Center tomorrow starting at 5:30. The Air Force will then hold the same meetings in Saipan, Tinian and Rota next week.

 

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