By Jayvee Vallejera
Speaker Therese Terlaje said the proposed final environmental assessment for a plan to hold missile tests in Guam is inadequate, despite the Missile Defense Agency’s assurance that it will have “no significant impact” on Guam, its environment, and its people.
In a statement last Aug. 2, which was also the deadline for the submission of public comments on the Proposed Final Environmental Assessment/Overseas Environmental Assessment for the Guam flight tests, Terlaje reiterated some of her earlier concerns about the proposal, adding that the project cannot be considered unless an Environmental Impact Statement is done and a complete EIS process is pursued.
The MDA earlier said the proposed action is consistent with existing environmental policies and will therefore not require an EIS, but Terlaje insists that one must be produced in order for the project to move forward.
An EIS requires things similar to what the MDA already has—an EA/OEA—but an EIS also gives a more thorough examination of other alternatives. In this case, that could include possibly holding the missile tests in other areas that somewhat mimic the conditions in Guam.
An EIS also looks at the cumulative effects of the proposal—the totality of its effects over the planned 10-year span of the missile tests—as well as reasonably foreseeable developments in the affected sites.
The MDA has marked 20 locations in Guam as possible host sites for the system’s mobile components.
The proposal is part of the federal government’s plan to build a 360-degree missile defense system in Guam and details a twice-a-year deployment and testing of missiles in Guam’s land and in its adjacent waters over 10 years. The exercises would include flight tests and tracking exercises from the Northwest Field of the Anderson Air Force Base in Guam or at sea from a U.S. Navy ship in the western Pacific Ocean.
Part of the missile test plan might include asking landowners on the boundaries of AAFB to stay away from their properties during the missile tests—something that Terlaje earlier objected to, saying this may temporarily restrict Guam residents’ use of the ocean and public and private property.
The Department of Defense’s maiden flight test of Guam’s missile defense system is proposed to be done later this year. The tests are intended to customize the existing missile defense system of the United States so it will be suited to the specific needs of Guam.
Rear Adm. Gregory Huffman, commander of the Joint Task Force Micronesia, which will assume command and control of the Guam missile defense system, earlier boasted that the system is a tried-and-true piece of equipment that the U.S. military had used before, “but we're modifying it to operate here on Guam,” hence the need for the tests.
Among Terlaje’s specific concerns about the proposed final EA/OEA are that it:
● Lacks assessment of biological/environmental impact;
● Lacks assessment of healthcare, public health, and public safety impact;
● Lacks assessment of historic and cultural properties impact;
● Interruptions to daily life, impacts to private landowners;
● Exacerbation of Guam’s housing crisis;
● Lacks collaboration with Guam agencies;
● Non-communication with the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands;
● Use of experimental technology and procedures; and
● Inadequate Cumulative Impact assessment.
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