When I first arrived on Saipan as a reporter in early 1985, a resident tipped me off to a potentially serious environmental issue in Marpi.
The basic story was that when the federal government banned several of the more nasty pesticides (both for effects on humans and persistence in the environment) in the early 70s, the Trust Territory government decided to get rid of its existing stockpile of such things on Saipan by burying the chemicals somewhere in the Marpi area.
When I asked then-DEQ chief Bill Lopp about it, he said he had heard the same thing, but had no details.
When I later asked his successor Russell Meacham about the matter, his response was the same.
I got the impression from both of them that they had more pressing issues to deal with.
I suggest the story sounds both plausible and probable, given the attitudes at the time and the concept of Marpi as a boonie area.
Could these pesticides have been buried far from the proposed homestead?
Of course, but wouldn’t it make sense for someone to make a determined effort to find out if this story is true and, if so, where the items are before people are potentially put into the area?
PHILIP SWETT
Newport, Oregon
