By Frank Whitman
The U.S. Marine Corps and the Department of the Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service are soliciting feedback from the community about the draft environmental assessment of its plans for the construction of new facilities at the Ritidian unit of the Guam National Wildlife Refuge.
The project is necessary because the surface danger zone of the Marines’ still-under-construction multipurpose machine gun range overlaps part of the refuge.
The overlap poses a potential safety concern although officials say the danger is minimal.
As currently proposed, the refuge project includes the construction of new administrative, research, and storage facilities for the Department of the Interior as well as a nature center, road improvements, parking areas, walkway, paved traffic turnaround, beachside drop-off area and handicapped parking.
“These are the absolute minimum infrastructure needed to support the facility requirements,” said Albert Borja, environmental director of Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz.
The infrastructure will support the Fish and Wildlife Service, which is the property manager, and its tenant, the U.S. Zoological Survey.
Among the decisions to be made are whether a two-story building will house the project components, which would require 4.5-acres, or whether the same components would be housed in a single-story building requiring 7.5 acres.
While the public will continue to have access to many of the beach facilities, the entrance to the refuge is to be moved closer to the southwestern end of the refuge.
Of 16 beachside picnic spots currently designated for public use, two or three may become inaccessible when the surface danger zone is activated, said Toni Mizerek, manager, Guam National Wildlife Refuge, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The project implementation is designed to minimize disruption of use or loss of resources by the public. Pristine areas are to be left untouched as much as possible.
“We hope that the early planning efforts that we've provided set us on the right path in terms of minimizing impacts to cultural resources,” Borja said. “We actually focused on using previously disturbed areas for some of the facility space requirements.”
The work is to be completed in three phases: Phase one is the military construction of the facility; phase two is the relocation from the current facility to the new one; phase three is the demolition of the old facility. The project is expected to take about three years to complete.
“The plan is to have the new facilities constructed first,” Mizerek said. “Then there will be time to move our equipment and people, but while that construction is happening we can still stay in our current facilities to reduce the impact to the staff and the public.”
The plan also includes steps to protect the environment and resources in the area. Part of the plan includes the stationing of individuals at the construction sites to monitor the construction activity to ensure areas that are to be left undisturbed are left undisturbed.
“There will be active management of the construction footprint throughout the duration of construction,” Borja said. “We will be looking out for threats to endangered species like bats, for example.”
The practice of teaming construction workers with subject matter experts, has been done successfully elsewhere. “It's a proven practice,” said Col. Ernest Govea, commanding officer of Camp Blaz.
Mizerek acknowledged the complexity of managing endangered species as well as invasive species.
“In partnership between the Marine Corps and the Fish and Wildlife Service, we're going to be working together to minimize the impacts to critical habitat,” she said. “We're not confident how successful we can be with restoring any habitat on top of demolished buildings, but that is part of the consideration.”
In addition, officials plan to remove invasive plants and animals, and plant native limestone forest species. They also expect to keep ungulates out of the area.
The protection of fresh water sources is also part of the plan. “Every time we develop within these types of areas where there could be drinking water sources or resources that could be potentially impacted, Guam Environmental Protection Agency gets involved in terms of design reviews,” Borja said. “They have design criteria we have to meet that needs to be protective of the aquifer resources.”
Range officials invited members of the public to the Dededo community center on Sept. 12 to provide information and answer questions about the draft assessment. About 30 members of the public braved a heavy rainstorm to take part in the session.
Comments must be received by Sept. 23, Chamorro Standard Time, to be considered for the final assessment.
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