Guam - Guam News

Guam - Senator Judi Guthertz has issued her notes on the meeting she and other Guam Senators held yesterday with Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Navy  (ASN) Jackalyne  Pfannenstiel  and  former  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Navy  Roger  Natsuhara,  now Principal Deputy to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Installations and Environment.

Those notes and the bulit points made by Guthertz and others are printed below.

Present:   Acting  Speaker,  Senator  Tina  Rose  Muna  Barnes;  Senator  Rory  Respicio;  Senator Judith P. Guthertz; Senator Ben Pangilinan; Senator Adolpho Palacios and Senator Tom Ada. Rear Admiral Bushong, CO, Naval Region Marianas; John Jackson, JGPO; Capt. Peter Lynch,
C/O NAVFAC Marianas; Roy Tsutsui, Political/Military Advisor to Admiral Bushong.

ASN Pfannenstiel:   I’m going to tell you where we are in the process.

Sen. Pangelinan:  Indicates this will be difficult to know, since we don’t know where we are. A  new of supplemental DEIS is called for, citing faults in economic section.   

ASN JP:  We have received voluminous comments [on DEIS.] Analysis people are digging  through them, about 10,000 comments in all from people here and in Washington.  We fully anticipate being finished [with the review] by the original time frame of July.

Sen. Pangelinan:  So is there a decision that there will NOT be a supplemental EIS?

ASN JP:  There will be a record of decision [ROD] 30 days after the final EIS comes out.  The EIS will be a public document.

Senator Respicio: Given the terrible grades given to DEIS contents by the EPA, you should start over and get it done again. We appreciate the pleasantries, but how much longer will they go on?  Resolution 275 has been presented to you and it was passed unanimously. If its provisions are not addressed, our position will be against the buildup.  When are we going to move from “still reviewing comments” to “we are engaging people of Guam in the EIS?”

ASN JP:  We are working closely with various federal agencies.  The issues raised are what we are intending to correct. Perhaps we have resolved or addressed your issues and needs in the revision. We are working to address the issues we have raised.  We anticipate EPA will not have a problem with the new EIS.

We do not intend to use land condemnation. If we need additional land, it would be obtained via negotiations. “I cannot not commit that we will not do dredging.”

Senator Respicio:  We will need feedback for public to buy in on this.

Senator Pangelinan:  If you are trying to do that, why did I get a letter saying no need to be accurate?

Senator Guthertz:  [She reads her bullet points] (attached). We’re not aware of what you are doing. Everything for us is based on the EIS, but, we are not sitting around the same table, discussing and coming up with alternatives.

ASN JP:  Roger Natsuhara has authority to sign off on the Record of Decision.

Senator Guthertz:  You will come out with the final version, we will comment on it and my instinct is that it will be a very negative reaction. People here will rebel if you don’t handle the land, coral, and funding issues correctly.

Senator Muna Barnes: There was plagiarism regarding the coral dredging in the DEIS.   We’ve already heard the military already has mitigation plans for coral – and say, that really only 35 acres are involved.  We are finding out more about these plans, bit by bit. Military is not as supportive as us for bottle bill.  Six common factors in Resolution 275.  All these visitors such as yourself come and we brief them on our needs and desires, yet when will we get some word?  We want answers.

Senator Guthertz:  Buildup contracts are already being let, and we have a letter to Ancestral Lands Commission from JGPO calling for survey work on sites mentioned in the DEIS.

ASN JP:  I understand that there have been some mixed signals, but that is because work is underway and we’re still working the complicated issues.   

Senator Guthertz:  Is there another vehicle to talk these things through with other than the EIS?

ASN  JP:    This  is  a  planning  document  –  lots  of  decisions  are  still  to  be  made  during  the execution phase.

Senator Guthertz:  Could you say, “National Security, so decide this way?”

ASN JP:  We need to work with the local community.

Senator Pangelinan: Even today, the military is not working with us. We were denied base access for professional people from Aquatics and Wildlife doing studies related to the DEIS.  

As far as the final EIS, we want to make sure it is accurate and that the mitigation plans will work.   

Natsuhara:  Decisions are not yet made yet on coral mitigation.

ASN JP:  We are open to other analysis.   

ASN RN: When final EIS comes out, we will have a unified federal position on the coral.

Senator Guthertz:  Our intentions are good, but communications [from your team] are poor; responses  are  not  coming,  and  we  will  continue  to  have  questions,  irritants  and  public concerns until we get the information.

ASN JP:  This is a long and involved process with many moving parts. I am sorry if you feel we are holding back from you.

Senator Respicio:  My sense is that you are proceeding as planned – toward a July decision.  You need to revise and resubmit the document, as opposed to these continued pleasantries.  Initially, the buildup was to be only inside the base – power, etc.  Now, with President Obama, there’s the  One‐Guam Green Guam approach
.   
Senator Guthertz:  There’s no commitment for financial help.

ASN JP: Roger Natsuhara was just in Japan working on this.

Senator Pangelinan: Is Futema issue connected to Guam plan?

Natsuhara:  We will press ahead with Guam planning, separate from Futema.

Senator Pangelinan:  You could find out that you are coming to an unstable place.

Natsuhara: The key is in the execution.

Senator Pangelinan: We’re asking you to extend the planning phase.

ASN JP:  The [Record of Decision] is a basic foundation, but leaves lots of room for flexibility.  It’s fairly broad, as long as it stays within environmental impact parameters.  Alternate plans could well fit within the ROD.

Natsuhara:  ROD looks at the worst situation.  As long as we stay within that impact, we have flexibility.

Senator Guthertz:  If the President comes in this environment, where you cannot share, and we don’t know, he may get a reception that is less than enthusiastic.  That’s not good for him.  We need him to deliver a positive message – that the people of Guam will not be seduced and
abandoned.

ASN JP: I will take this message back.

Senator Muna Barnes:
Tina Muna‐Barnes:  What about the set‐asides for local companies regarding energy?

ASN  JP:   I’m  a  supporter  of  renewable  energy.  We  need  to  put  money  into  sustainability. We’re looking at several technologies, such as waste‐to‐energy.  New technologies are coming on line and evolving. We’re not looking at dirty incinerators.   

Senator Guthertz:  What is coming down next?

ASN JP:  The final EIS at the end of July. We could have some communications prior to that to let you know our thinking on your issues.  I cannot pin down the time line.  I will continue to let you know our thinking on the issues.

Senator  Pangelinan:    Local  law  prohibits  any  incinerator  in  Guam.    We  want  the  contract management  office  for  NAVFAC  located  on  Guam,  rather  than  in  Hawaii.  We  still  have leakage of GRT.  Overhead costs for home offices are taken off the top where under Guam law
they are subject to Guam GRT. These needs all need to be fixed, but does not mean you have a lock on carrying out the full buildup if they are fixed

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