In her report, Bordallo identified six areas of concern regarding the draft study, including and the Navy’s desire to acquire additional private and public lands.
“We will challenge the Navy to conduct the military buildup on their existing land. The Navy should better utilize its land and consider moving housing and some support facilities for the Marine aviation unit to Andersen Air Force Base,” Bordallo said.
Secondly, an area of concern is the proposed firing range at Pagat and Sasayan. “If private property owners choose not to lease or sell their land I will support them and oppose any effort by the Department of Defense to use eminent domain to acquire that land. I recognize the input of private landowners and the organization ‘We Are Guahan’ on this issue,” she added.
A third area of concern is the proposed alternative for an aircraft carrier transient berth in Apra Harbor. “The plans for the carrier berth in Apra Harbor will result in a significant loss of coral. I will challenge the Navy to identify other alternatives that will minimize coral damage and that will take advantage of currently dredged areas such as Kilo or Delta wharves among others. I thank Sen. Judith Guthertz for her input,” said the congresswoman.
Fourth, she noted the need for federal assistance for improving civilian infrastructure on Guam to support the military buildup.
“While the DEIS draft report recognizes the need to improve civilian infrastructure it does not provide a clear strategy that details how the federal government will assist Guam,” Bordallo said as she opposed the Navy’s plan to drill 22 new wells in the north “until an independent assessment is made about the capacity of the northern aquifer.”
The fifth area of concern is the lack of a comprehensive plan for the housing of guest workers and providing for their health care needs in a manner that does not further overwhelm Guam’s local infrastructure and health care system.
“Let me be clear about this issue — we must do all that we can to train our local workforce and hire them before we utilize guest workers. Any proposal to house guest workers outside the gates must address their impact on civilian infrastructure such as water, wastewater and power. We cannot allow guest worker housing off-base to cause the faucets to run dry or power outages in our homes.”
