The massive illegal dumpsite spanning nearly 1 acre on unoccupied Chamorro Land Trust Property was brought up during a special CLTC meeting on Friday.  

The board of commissioners is looking to install power and water on leased land trust property, using $9 million appropriated to their survey and infrastructure fund from the legislature last term.

They can afford to install the infrastructure on six parcels of land in the villages of Mangilao, Hagat, Dededo and Yigo.

The project will affect about 743 constituents and cost $8.7 million. 

They want to create a subdivision that’s ready for constituents to build their homes. 

But acting Administrative Director Joey Cruz points out the dump sits on one of the idle properties they’ve identified for the project. 

“In the recent weeks in the news, there have been concerns of an illegal dump burning. That occurred within this tract 10-22,” said Cruz. “We’re trying to figure out how to mitigate the illegal dumping. In a perfect world, if CLTC had the money, we can put a chain fence around everything we own. But realistically, what we could consider is the presence of our lessees– when there’s people who are occupying, it drives down or mitigates the possibility of illegal dumping.”

The illegal dump is on properties leased to eligible land trust recipients but remains unoccupied with the lack of utility infrastructure. 

The dump is also within a protected water zone and could potentially contaminate the island’s drinking water. 

Cruz says this project could prevent further dumping on CLTC property, without costing them additional funds.