ÌìÃÀÊÓƵ

Japanese investors appear to have abandoned plans to dump millions of tons of debris from last year’s tsunami disaster on a pristine island in the Northern Mariana Islands.

Hawaii scientists, outraged at the potential environmental impacts, have been working for weeks to derail the proposal after it was in the Saipan Tribune.

Asia Mining Development PTE and Kanakyo Kaizen Kiko Co. are no longer exploring the idea of using Pagan Island as a garbage site, according to a spokesperson for Benigno Fitial, governor of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

“It appears that the interested investors are no longer interested in shipping and storing tsunami debris due to certain laws in Japan that seemingly prohibit such from occurring,” said Angel Demapan by email.

Japan has only disposed of a little more than 5 percent of the estimated 23 million tons of rubble from the Iwate, Miyagi and Fukishima prefectures, . And in March, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda the private sector for help.

Officials from Asia Mining Development did not respond to an inquiry from Civil Beat and employees of Kanako Kaizen Kiki could not be reached for comment.

The companies have not, however, given up on a plan to mine volcanic ash on Pagan Island, said Demapan.

The investors had initially hoped to cart tsunami debris to the remote and nearly pristine island on ships that would then be filled with the volcanic ash, called pozzolan, and returned to Japan. The companies would not only get paid by the Japanese government for disposing of the debris, but also profit from the sale of the pozzolan, which is used to make cement, according to the Saipan Tribune.

The plan was attracting increasing controversy. Scientists from the University of Hawaii circulated a petition against the companies’ plans that has been signed by more than 2,000 people, and launched a website called, . A Facebook page titled “No to Dumping Japan’s Trash on Pagan” has attracted more than 4,500 subscribers. And the commonwealth’s U.S. congressman isn’t happy about the idea.

Rep. Kilili Sablan “is someone who is very concerned about the protection of the environment and maintaining the health of our islands,” Bob Schwalbach, the congressman’s chief of staff, told Civil Beat. “So a proposal like this to dump another country’s waste products on one of the islands of the Northern Marianas is not something that sits well with him. He doesn’t think it would be appropriate to use the Mariana Islands as a waste site for another country’s debris.”

For UH Scientists, It All Started With Tree Snails

For two weeks, Michael Hadfield, a UH scientist, led a team of eight scientists around Pagan Island in search of the endangered tree snail.

Federal officials sent them to the island in 2010 because, according to Hadfield, the U.S. military was looking to turn Pagan Island into the next Kahoolawe, the Hawaiian island that the military used for target practice for half a century. If the endangered snail was found on the island, then the military would have to come up with a plan to mitigate any impact that its activities could have on the snail.

A spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Command wasn’t sure of the military’s plans for Pagan Island on Tuesday. The Northern Mariana Islands have been a territory of the United States since the end of World War II.

Hadfield said that he was glad to hear that Japanese companies were no longer interested in using Pagan Island as a dump for tsunami debris.

“I hope it’s true,” he said, noting that it would be nice if the government would issue a formal statement about it.

But he remains concerned about the possible environmental impacts of mining the island’s volcanic ash.

“I think there could be a big impact,” said Hadfield.

“I would be very concerned to see some kind of permit or lease from the government without some detail about what could happen.”

Local Economy Flounders

Pagan Island is not easily accessible and many residents from Saipan, the island where the majority of the population lives, have never even visited it, according to Hadfield. There’s a small runway on the island’s northern tip where planes and helicopters can land and take off. It can also be reached by a day-long boat ride.

While several dozen native Chamorros used to live on the island, the government evacuated them in 1981 after a volcanic eruption. Hadfield said that there were still shacks, pots and pans, and even kids’ toys on the island, evidence that people are still visiting the island.

But most of it remains untouched, and according to members of Hadfield’s team of scientists that examined Pagan Island, it’s idyllic.

The Save Pagan Island describes it like this:

Swaying palm trees, expansive beaches, and fringing coral reefs, all topped with a steaming volcano. This island is teeming with life; by day beautiful birds and butterflies abound, by night huge bats feed on abundant fruit. In the shade of coco palms, stone ruins of a culture long extinct persist.

While Pagan Island may not become a tsunami dumping ground, staving off foreign interests in the island could be difficult.

The Northern Mariana Islands’ economy has languished since 2005, and Pagan Island could provide a much needed cash infusion. Beginning in the 1980s, it was a haven for garment manufacturing because U.S. trade law restricted shipping, said Schwalbach. But in 2005, those quotas ended, and with them, the U.S. territory’s corner on the market.

“The gross domestic product in the Mariana Islands has dropped every year since 2005,” said Schwalbach. “So it’s definitely an economy that is on the ropes. And every responsible leader is thinking in terms of ways to rebuild the economy and help the people living in the Mariana Islands through this period of economic decline.”

And for local government officials, allowing Japanese investors to mine Pagan Island’s volcanic ash is apparently one such option.

Demapan said studies would have to be done in order to quantify how much revenue the mining could bring to the government.