By Emmanuel T. Erediano
Variety News Staff

THE assessment of brownsfield on Saipan and Tinian will begin next month, according to the Department of Public Lands.
The Environmental Protection Agency defines brownsfield as “real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant.”
Brownsfield includes property contaminated with petroleum or petroleum products, ordnance and munitions left behind after World War II.
DPL finance division director David Atalig said they are now getting started with Phase I of the petroleum assessment at 12 sites on Saipan and Tinian.
Atalig wrote the brownsfield grant application that was subsequently approved by the EPA last year
. The EPA awarded DPL $550,000 for the assessments of lands for hazardous substances and petroleum.
$350,000 of this amount is for the assessment of lands for hazardous materials while $200,000 will be used for the assessment of land for petroleum.
The first three sites that will undergo environmental assessment next month are the former quarry sites of the Western Equipment Construction Co. in Lower Base, Dandan and Tinian.
These areas Atalig said, could be contaminated with petroleum.
Phases I and II of the American Society for Testing and Materials standard testing method will be used in the assessments.
The first phase, Atalig said, involves an examination of the historical and cultural back round of the particular sites identified with potential contamination of petroleum.
Phase 2 involves the actual testing of oil or petroleum samples gathered from the sites.
Once these two phases are completed, Atalig said they will start preparing for the cleanup.
The administration said the cleanup of the brownsfield sites will pave the way for the opening of lands for homesteads as well as investment and redevelopment opportunities.