space Press Releases, News Stories

by Rowena Singh, Environmental News Service

The agencies have done so through gross negligence or environmentally criminal actions contrary to federal law and their own policies, the attorney general's report says. PCBs are oily polychlorinated biphenyl fluids used for heat transfer and electrical insulation. Chronic exposure of animals to PCBs can lead to disrupted hormone balances, reproductive failures, and cancers. The manufacture of PCBs stopped in the United States in 1977 because of evidence that they build up in the environment and cause harmful effects. This first public protest on the PCB contamination of Saipan drew nearly 100 demonstrators - a mix of Saipan residents and Greenpeace activists from nine nations, all clad in T-shirts condemning the United States as a toxic criminal. The governor of Commonwealth of Northern Marianas, Pedro Tenorio, says he is appreciative of the work Greenpeace is doing to help the local community. He emphasized that the people have to work as a unified front in resolving the situation. He voiced deep concerns over the PCB situation in Tanapag village and other contaminated sites in Saipan and says he has urged the federal agencies to speed the clean up process. The small village of Tanapag on the island of Saipan has been contaminated by hazardous wastes left behind by the U.S. military between the 1960s and '70s. Though exposed to dangerous toxins for nearly 50 years, the people of the Tanapag only found out about the PCBs in the last few years through the local media.

Residents of Tanapag village suffer from chronic skin diseases, cancers and leukemia, which they now link to the PCB exposure. The teachers at the local primary school express concern over the numbers of children in Tanapag village with learning disabilities, a common symptom of PCB exposure. Tanapag resident, Mike Evangelista and Greenpeace International's toxics specialist, Dr. Darryl Luscombe, presented to David Wood, the U.S. assistant attorney general for the Mariana Islands, a letter addressed to U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno. The letter urges Reno to investigate the negligence of federal agencies in handling the Tanapag PCB contamination and asks the Department of Defence to urgently address the remediation of Tanapag. It calls for evacuation of the people whose homes have been contaminated with PCBs. "This is not the place to send a letter to Janet Reno," protested a flustered Wood. "If you really want to send the letter you should do it directly." Still, Wood accepted the letter and promised to pass in on to Reno. Dr. Luscombe said that copies have been sent to the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of State, the head of the U.S. EPA and to Reno, but the group wanted to present the letter to a U.S. government representative in person. Wood had "no comment," about the Mariana's attorney general's report, the PCB situation in Tanapag and the protest outside his office. Evangelista, Tanapag spokesperson and activist, said he was disappointed with Wood's hurried and dismissive response to the group's expressions of concern. "It's outrageous that 20 years later they still haven't cleaned up Tanapag Village," said Evangelista. "If this were a little town in California, they would have cleaned it up already. We're treated as a little rock in the Pacific with no representation on the Congress, and our problems get ignored."

"We're here to send a message out to the federal government that the people of Tanapag and Greenpeace are going to work together to ensure that all their environmental problems are addressed properly," said Maureen Penjueli, Greenpeace Pacific's toxics campaign team leader. "We feel that the people of Tanapag have been shortchanged and they are currently being treated as second class citizens of the U.S."

Community activist Cinta Kaipat said she was shocked and angered by the Mariana's attorney general's report on the PCB contamination. She said it proves they cannot place any faith in the assurances made by U.S. federal agencies in local newspapers that there are only low levels of contamination, there is nothing to worry about and that the agencies are doing their jobs. The report shows that people have been continually exposed to dangerous levels of contamination, and that the federal agencies have failed to meet the requirements of even their own policies. It states that major issues such as ground water contamination, which is 18 times higher than safe levels, and evacuation of residents living within close proximity to the contaminated sites, have not being addressed. During a Greenpeace workshop on destruction technologies of PCB contaminants, conducted in Saipan last Thursday, Dr. Luscombe explained that the proposed federal agencies' work plan does not present a definite safe method for the last phase of the clean up process, which entails the destruction of the PCBs, and is due to start January 2001. For instance, incinerating PCBs would release dioxins and furans, which are even more toxic than PCBs. Storing such waste in landfills, no matter how well they may be engineered, eventually leads to leakage, which could contaminate ground water and surrounding areas. Murphy Peterson, Mariana's assistant attorney general, who was part of the investigative team that compiled the preliminary report, said the federal agencies concerned had also violated the Freedom of Information request made by the Division of Environmental Quality (DEQ).

"The public has to have access to every work plan, the decisions made and actions related to the PCB contamination," said Peterson. "Most of this information so far has been kept away from the public. When it comes to issues such as public safety and water contamination, decisions cannot be made without proper public consultation. However, the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers are not currently doing this."

Cayetana Teigata Delacruz, Tanapag resident and a former schoolteacher at the school that was closed down because of heavy PCB contamination, suffers from a serious psoriasis skin condition she believes comes from exposure to PCB.

While teaching she noticed many students with learning disabilities, a symptom of PCB exposure. She only found out very recently that the transformers around the village had contained thes toxins and that her skin condition may have been the result of the exposure to these PCBs. Cayetana says that last year her family was prevented from placing a headstone on the grave of a family member because the Tanapag cemetery was placed off limits due to the presence of PCBs. This is particularly hard for the villagers because of the cultural importance of November 1st, All Souls Day, when they go to the cemetery to spend the day paying their respects to their loved ones by placing fresh wreaths and even lying on the grave sites. Two to three weeks beforehand the people spend much time preparing the cemetery for this important day, exposing themselves to the PCB contaminants. Cayetana hopes to be able to place the headstone in its proper place on All Souls Day this year provided that the Army Corps of Engineers keeps its word to clean up the contamination by then. Before the downtown protest, the Greenpeace team went to the cemetery site of the PCB stockpile to erect proper signage and markers warning people of the dangers of entering the contaminated site.

"They left highly contaminated waste in a very inadequately fenced and sign-posted area," said Greenpeace Captain Daniel Mares, skipper of the Rainbow Warrior. "The site was completely overgrown with weeds. The fence had fallen into disrepair and the toxics are inadequately covered. We're repairing the fence that the Army originally built. Although it is not adequate, it gives some sort of a visual barrier to go with the signage to remind the people that this is a very serious matter."

Captain Mares warned, "Children playing in the grounds here, where their ancestors rest, could be affecting their own future and the future of their own ability to reproduce."

About 100 miles north of Guam in the Western Pacific, the Northern Marianas Islands is a self-governing Commonwealth of the United States with a status parallel to that of Puerto Rico.