It’s been over two months since the Category 4 Typhoon Mawar hit our island, but mountains of debris and waste remain are causing frustration among the community. One of the federal partners here on island to help clean up, the US Environmental Protection Agency, has developed a storymap that gives a detailed overview of their response efforts.

Agency officials say it’s a helpful tool for the public to get a visual of the work that’s been done.

High resolution images and drone shots giving an overview of the impacts and cleanup still being done. It’s part of an interactive storymap outlining the USEPA's emergency response activities in guam in the aftermath of Mawar.

Martha Guzman is the EPA's regional administrator for Region 9, and told KUAM News, "We’re at a point in the process where we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We want to be transparent with that and the storymap really helps to provide a level of detail that we don’t get to communicate everyday."

USEPA was tasked and funded by FEMA to restore the island’s water infrastructure and to collect and properly dispose of hazardous waste and oil. EPA on-scene coordinator Eric Nuchims explained, "The storymap covers all the work that EPA has accomplished as far as removing household hazardous waste, electronic waste from the three main consolidation areas, as well as the 41 public schools. And it shows the volumes and the weights of that waste."

82.6 tons of batteries, over 33,000 gallons of flammable liquids and 7,200 pounds of mercury contaminated debris are just some of the hazardous waste that have been safely prepared for disposal or recycling off-island. "The very exciting part here is that we’re really nearing the end to be able to ship a lot of these waste off-island. A lot of it will have to stay on island, but in a safe space in a regulated landfill. That’s the real interactive piece that we’re wanting to highlight so that people can continue to ask questions on the story board, said Guzman.

So far, 24 40' containers of waste have been shipped off to the mainland. Still , mountains of debris are still piled high at the three typhoon debris disposal sites.

Nuchims says the EPA is only in charge of handling hazardous waste, e-waste and oils under the FEMA mission - the US Army Corps of Engineers is tasked with removing other typhoon-related debris. "My understanding is that the Army Corps is taking care of the white goods, your refrigerators, your washers and dryers type of household appliances as well as construction debris and vegetation debris. So they’re handling that mission," he said.

The COE leadership previously admitting that debris may take up to six months to be cleared up. Nuchims adds EPA is nearly done with their part. They’ve already stopped any more collections from the three consolidated sites, adding, "As far as EPA’s timeline, we’re wrapping up operations for the household hazardous waste, electronic wastes, oils, and other things that are dangerous to the environment."

It's all in an effort to get the island to pre-disaster conditions soon.