This, according to AMPRO president John Scott, is because of the huge volume of unexploded ordnance being unearthed from the Marpi Homestead Project.
“We expect to finish clearing up the homestead project in Marpi by October, and with the ongoing clearing, we expect to dig up more unexploded ordnance,” Scott said.
Yesterday, a joint team from the Department of Public Safety, the U.S. Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal detachment in the Marianas and the CNMI Explosive Ordnance Team led by its commander, Capt. Pete Leon Guerrero, detonated over 1,000 lbs. of live World War 11 ordnance at the Laderan Laggun Cliff Line.
So far, a total of over 3,000 lbs of unexploded ordnance have been detonated for this year.
Scott said the periodic detonation operations must be conducted because the storage pit can only hold a limited volume of unexploded ordnance.
Yesterday’s detonation, which was the third for this year, attracted more viewers compared to the previous detonations, and included over 60 participants of the 26th Pacific Islands Environment Conference.
“Viewing the detonation was a good experience for our visitors from the other Pacific islands because if they encounter unexploded ordnance problems in their places, they already got a glimpse of how we do it here,” Scott said.
The visitors were also given a tour of the “Boom Cave” or the storage pit where the live unexploded ordnance is being stored in Marpi.
Scott said World War II unexploded ordnance can also be found on Tinian, Rota and Peleliu in Palau.
He said a few items are being also unearthed each year in other islands like Pohnpei, Hawaii and American Samoa where there were military training bases.
“The unexploded ordnance retrieved from other places is less than the volume of items retrieved from the CNMI,” Scott said.
Yesterday’s detonation was originally set for June 18 but was rescheduled to give the visitors from the Pacific islands a chance to view it.
