Monaeka Flores of Prutehi Litekyan, a CHamoru community group, is hoping that her family can one day reclaim their land on Andersen Air Force Base.
“The military seized my great grandfather’s copra and pig farm, which was right next to where the Air Force wants to blow up bombs, rockets, and other hazardous waste munitions,” Flores said. “My family dreams of the return of our ancestral lands, and we want to put our land back to culturally appropriate, productive use. But we can’t do that if the Air Force is allowed to contaminate the land and water with their toxic waste.”
On Tuesday, the group filed a lawsuit in the District Court of Guam against the U.S. Department of the Air Force, the Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall, the US Department of Defense, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
The group is being represented by Earthjustice.
Prutehi Litekyan: Save Ritidian alleges that the Air Force violated federal law by failing to evaluate the cultural and environmental impacts from open burning and open detonation of hazardous waste munitions on Tarague Beach or consider alternative, environmentally preferred technologies for weapons disposal.
The lawsuit challenges the U.S. Air Force’s failure to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
The proposed open burning operations at Tarague Beach would involve putting hazardous waste munitions in a large metal container that is open to the air, pouring diesel on top, and then lighting the munitions on fire, officials with the group stated, adding that open detonation operations would consist of blowing up bombs, rockets, and other hazardous waste munitions directly on the bare sand.
Prutehi Litekyan argues that such operations could permanently contaminate the area with unexploded ordnance and toxic chemicals, to include the aquifer.
The group also contends the contaminants could enter the ocean, harming local families that frequent nearby beaches and culturally significant fishing sites, and the explosions from open detonation on the bare sand of Tarague Beach threaten harm to endangered green sea turtles, which nest there, and migratory seabirds that frequent the beach.
“I don’t want the Air Force to poison the ocean my children swim in, the water we drink, and the sacred land we all depend on,” said Maria Hernandez of Prutehi Litekyan.
“The whole point of the National Environmental Policy Act is to force federal agencies like the Air Force to consider the harm their proposed projects would inflict and to look at better ways to get the job done before they make a decision to proceed,” said Earthjustice attorney David Henkin. “The Air Force’s violations are particularly egregious here, where the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recently issued a study that identified much safer ways to dispose of munitions than blowing them up and burning them in the open air. The Air Force had a legal duty to consider using those safer technologies before seeking to continue OB/OD at Andersen Air Force Base, which threatens serious cultural and environmental harm.”
Prutehi Litekyan wants the court to enter a declaratory judgment that the military has violated and are violating NEPA by seeking renewal of the Hazardous Waste Management Facility Permit for the open burning and open detonation operations at AAFB without first preparing an environmental assessment or impact statement. The group also seeks permanent injunctive relief to ensure the military fully complies with NEPA and avoids irreparable harm to the environment until they comply.
