DEIS comment period expires tomorrow

DEIS comment period expires tomorrow

Wednesday, 17 February 2010 03:33
by Zita Y. Taitano | Variety News Staff

GUAM residents have until 3 p.m. tomorrow to submit their comments on the draft environmental impact statement, upon expiration of the 90-day public review and comment that officially started on Nov. 21 last year.

The Record of Decision is expected to be issued in August.

Senator Ben Pangelinan wants to see the final draft of the document to see if changes are made to include public input. “Then we would submit comments on the final draft for the final copy,” he said.

There were two ways for residents to submit their comments, whether it was to submit on line on the impact study’s website www.guambuildupeis.us or to do download the comment form the site and mail it to the Joint Guam Program Office courtesy of the Naval Facilities headquarters in Hawaii.

The latter of which must be postmarked on Feb. 17 in order for the comment document to be included with the thousands of other comments on the study.

The original time frame for the comment period was 45 days, but was extended to 90 days after concerns were raised that the allotted time was not enough for residents to fully digest the 11,000-page document and express their thoughts.

Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo has requested the Department of Navy to extend the comment period further, but the congresswoman received no response.

Senator Judi Guthertz, chairman of the military buildup committee at the legislature, yesterday sent another installment of comment paper, in which she emphasized the billions of dollars that Guam needs in order to adequately prepare itself for the military buildup.

“Only minimal assistance has been forthcoming from the federal government, which has placed this unfunded mandate upon 178,000 American citizens living on a tiny island of only 212 square miles,” said Guthertz.

Once all the comments have been received at the NAVFAC Pacific, they will be reviewed and put together for the final draft copy.

Residents who would like to send their comments via regular mail can send them to the following address JGPO c/o NAVFAC Pacific, 258 Makalapa Drive, Suite 100, Pearl Harbor, HI 96860-3134 ATTENTION: GMPO. Again, all comments mailed out by Wednesday should have it postmarked Feb. 17.