{"id":342,"date":"2010-03-26T18:47:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-26T18:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theinsularempire.com\/?p=342"},"modified":"2014-07-17T21:34:27","modified_gmt":"2014-07-17T21:34:27","slug":"guam-buildup-environmentally-unsatisfactory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theinsularempire.com\/?p=342","title":{"rendered":"Guam Military Buildup: Environmentally Unsatisfactory"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;text-align: left\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.islandbreath.org\/2009Year\/2009-12\/091201seth.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"margin: 10px\" src=\"http:\/\/www.islandbreath.org\/2009Year\/2009-12\/091201seth.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" width=\"256\" height=\"192\" \/><\/a>The DoD&#8217;s proposal to increase its already-massive footprint on the island of Guam recently received the EPA&#8217;s lowest rating: Environmentally Unsatisfactory. While &#8220;unsatisfactory&#8221; to me calls up benign images of less-than-optimal spelling homework, this milquetoast language in fact represents <strong>a scathing indictment of the proposed buildup<\/strong> \u2013 and a serious roadblock to the military&#8217;s expansionist plans.<\/div>\n<p>We Are Guahan has posted a great <a href=\"http:\/\/weareguahan.com\/2010\/03\/03\/10-things-you-should-know-about-us-epas-comment\/\">ten-point summary<\/a> of the EPA&#8217;s findings on their website. The problems identified by the EPA include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>contaminated drinking water<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;unacceptable,&#8221; island-wide water shortages<\/li>\n<li>endangerment of Guam&#8217;s aquifer<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;unprecedented&#8221; destruction of Guam&#8217;s coral reefs<\/li>\n<li>inadequate protection of endangered wetlands<\/li>\n<li>lack of commitment to energy efficiency, renewable energy, and cleaner fuels<\/li>\n<li>over eight TONS of hazardous waste generated<\/li>\n<li> lack of mitigation to likely PCP contamination<\/li>\n<li>no discussion of treatment of radioactive waste<\/li>\n<li>significant noise impacts<\/li>\n<li>invasive species introduction<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8230; and the list goes on and on. You can read it yourself &#8211; the report is a handy 101-page download, with a succinct table of contents outlining the 1,001 reasons why <strong>THIS BUILDUP IS A REALLY BAD IDEA, from an environmental standpoint.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Of course, it&#8217;s a really bad idea for a number of other reasons too. For instance, <strong>it threatens to overwhelm the island&#8217;s indigenous population<\/strong> and to further erode the Chamoru culture and language. But the US government doesn&#8217;t have an Indigenous Culture Protection Agency to make these points.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theinsularempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/guamfish1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1449 alignright\" style=\"margin: 10px\" src=\"https:\/\/theinsularempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/guamfish1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"274\" height=\"206\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The current focus on environmental issues calls to mind a conversation I had, several years ago, with the late Carlos Taitano. He said that he was frustrated when the two-legged Guam Rail raised so much concern among environmentalists, who seemed to have no concern for the local population. &#8220;What about the two-legged Chamorro?&#8221; he asked.<\/p>\n<p>Admittedly, it&#8217;s frustrating when environmental concerns trump the concerns of a people, culture, and language. However, in the case of the Guam buildup, I think that environmental concerns may dovetail nicely with the needs of the local population \u2013 whose drinking water, air quality, and health are being so overwhelmingly threatened by the DoD&#8217;s proposal. Since the US military wouldn&#8217;t dream of trying to impose this kind of a project on mainland Americans, it&#8217;s my hope as well that <strong>the proposed buildup will bring Guam&#8217;s colonial status out into the light of day<\/strong>. Because sunshine is the best \u2013 and the most environmentally friendly \u2013 antiseptic .<\/p>\n<p>(Photos courtesy of Desiree Taimanglo-Ventura at <a href=\"http:\/\/thedrowningmermaid.blogspot.com\/\">The Drowning Mermaid<\/a>, and David Burdick at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.allislandscorals.org\/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=45&amp;Itemid=55\">US All Islands Coral Reef Committee<\/a>)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The DoD&#8217;s proposal to increase its already-massive footprint on the island of Guam recently received the EPA&#8217;s lowest rating: Environmentally Unsatisfactory. While &#8220;unsatisfactory&#8221; to me calls up benign images of less-than-optimal spelling homework, this milquetoast language in fact represents a scathing indictment of the proposed buildup \u2013 and a serious roadblock to the military&#8217;s expansionist [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,86,85],"tags":[89,90,167,91],"class_list":["post-342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-guam-military-buildup","category-vanessas-front-page-picks","tag-guam","tag-guam-deis","tag-guam-military-buildup","tag-the-insular-empire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theinsularempire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theinsularempire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theinsularempire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theinsularempire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theinsularempire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=342"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/theinsularempire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2321,"href":"https:\/\/theinsularempire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions\/2321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theinsularempire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theinsularempire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theinsularempire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}