PACIFIC: US military a `toxic criminal'

SAIPAN, CNMI -- Greenpeace has declared the United States government a toxic criminal for using the Pacific as a dumping ground for its poisons.

Greenpeace and Tanapag villagers have re-fenced and signposted piles of contaminated soil left after previous attempts by the US Department of Defense to clean up the village in the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands failed. On August 6 they demonstrated outside the US attorney-general's representative's office in Saipan and requested an investigation into the conclusions of a recent report by the CNMI attorney-general's office.

That report stated: “The [US] Environmental Protection Agency ... and the Army Corps of Engineers ... ha[ve] endangered the health, safety and welfare of the people of the Commonwealth through what may be characterized as either gross negligence or environmentally criminal actions contrary to federal law and their own policies.

“It has taken the US military over 12 years to get around to finally addressing the contamination issue in Tanapag. This would have been illegal and unacceptable on mainland USA”, Greenpeace Pacific toxics campaigner, Maureen Penjueli, said. “Yet the same double standard exists in other parts of the world, such as the Philippines, Guam and Japan, where communities are still living with PCB contamination of military origin.”

Chemicals such as PCBs are known as persistent organic pollutants. An international treaty to eliminate POPs is currently being negotiated by more than 100 countries.

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