Environmental advocates welcome Navy's decision to reduce its footprint and limit training on Tinian

By Mar-Vic Cagurangan

Environmental groups are pleased with the U.S. Navy's recently issued record of decision, which restricts live-fire training exercises on Tinian and leaves Pagan out of the picture.

“We welcome the Navy’s decision to listen to our voices and to spare our island from highly destructive training. We will remain vigilant to ensure the Navy follows through on its new plan,” said Juanita Mendiola of Tinian Women Association.

The Navy published the record of decision in the Federal Register on July 31, following the release of the final environmental impact statement that capped the National Environmental Policy Act process for the establishment of a training area and range operations command on Tinian.

The initial plan designated Pagan as a target site, with aerial bombing, ship-to-shore shelling and live-fire amphibious assaults.

During the commenting period, residents warned that tapping Pagan for military purposes would shut off the island to families with ancestral connections. Residents evacuated Pagan after a volcanic eruption in 1981, but resettlement is in the works.

“We are from a millennia-old line of seafarers, from the long voyaging sakman and the smaller duduli and galaidi’ all flying lateen sails, plying the open waters and cresting the waves with the blue marlin, bottle-nosed dolphins, pilot and humpback whales," said Genevieve S. Cabrera, Guardian of Gåni’.

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The original proposal released in 2015 was greeted with local protests, prompting the Navy to withdraw the draft environmental impact statement in early 2016.

The revised draft EIS, released last year, includes two small‑arms live‑fire ranges, ground maneuver training, aviation training at North Field and 13 landing zones across the military lease area.

It also calls for a temporary expeditionary base camp, two radar towers and portable communications equipment to support small, dispersed units operating in the Indo‑Pacific.

According to the final EIS, the decision took into account the potential environmental impacts of the proposed military training activities, along with associated projects designed to "support current and evolving joint land-based expeditionary warfare tactics and enhance military readiness."

"We have rejoiced in feats of triumph and lived through bitter defeat and senseless demoralization because we are also from deep ancestral resilience wherein lies vested our hope and sacrifice for a better tomorrow,” Cabrera said.

While claiming success in the process, Pete Perez, co-founder of PaganWatch, cautioned that "the laws that made it possible are under attack" and must therefore be defended.

"The National Environmental Policy Act ensured our communities had a meaningful voice in decisions affecting our future and helped prevent a proposal that would have had devastating consequences for our homeland," Perez said.

Signed into law in 1970, NEPA requires federal agencies to assess environmental impacts before taking major actions on proposed projects.

“There is no question that the Navy would never have given up on its original, highly destructive plan if NEPA did not force it to make its decision-making public and to invite and consider public input," said David Henkin, an attorney with Earthjustice’s Mid-Pacific Office.

"NEPA’s environmental review process resulted in a plan that is better for the local community and the environment, without sacrificing national security,” he added

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