Vice Speaker Terlaje raises concerns at Programmatic Agreement Meeting and states ancient villages at Ritidian/Litekyan should not be disturbed.

FOR IMMEDIATE NEWS RELEASE (April 27, 2017 – Hagåtña) – During today’s annual Programmatic Agreement meeting Vice Speaker Therese Terlaje (D-Yona) raised several concerns.  One of the concerns raised by Vice Speaker Terlaje was that the terms of the Programmatic Agreement had not been fully complied with.  Specifically, Terlaje asked for an opinion from the representative from the Advisory Council on Historic Property (ACHP) as to whether DoD had complied in good faith with mitigation of the cumulative effects of the military buildup on cultural and historic properties pursuant to Section VII.C.4.b . ACHP requested that the USN submit a white paper discussing its efforts to comply with the mitigation mandated in Section VII. C. 4. b, which provides :

“b. In addition to the Guam Cultural Repository facility addressed above, DoD will also advocate to other Federal agencies to fund a complete museum complex on Guam to house and display Guam’s unique cultural artifacts for the public’s benefit”.

The museum complex is a mitigation requirement separate from and in addition to the 20,000 square foot Guam Cultural Repository described in Section Vii.C.4.a., which was promised to be funded in 2012 but has only recently been fully authorized in the amount of $12M. DoD reported that the repository plans are not finalized and it is unknown whether the amount will be sufficient given the current labor shortage and inflation since 2012.

DoD also reported that historic properties in Finegayan and Northwest Field that may have been eligible for the National Register would be disturbed by military activity and that the PA authorized them to mitigate by data recovery instead of avoidance.

Vice Speaker Terlaje also discussed with the ACHP that the firing ranges at Northwest Field were not specifically contemplated in the PA and overlay very significant historical properties, including an ancient village at Ritidian/Litekyan that should not be disturbed.

 

###

 

For more information, please call the Office of Vice Speaker Therese M. Terlaje at (671) 472-3586.