Lawsuit fired over Marine firing range on Guam - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Lawsuit fired over Marine firing range on Guam

Federal and local entities that oppose plans for a Marine firing range in Guam’s Pågat area have filed a lawsuit against the Defense Department in a Hawaii federal court.

The Guam Preservation Trust has partnered with the National Preservation Trust and protest group We Are Guåhan in filing the 86-page lawsuit.

The lawsuit calls for a federal judge to stop any plans to build the proposed firing range along Route 15, near the ancient Pågat Village site. On Thursday, Nick Yost, the lead attorney, said a scheduling conference has been set for Feb. 14.

“The most desirable result would be the Defense Department would see the error of their ways and they decide to put the firing range somewhere else,” Yost said. “There is a certain amount of paperwork they have to go through to do that, but the very minimum, what we want is them to reopen the process and honestly examine alternatives.”

The proposed firing range has become one of the most controversial aspects of the coming military buildup on the island, which could bring 41,000 people — including 5,163 Marines — to Guam by 2016.

The lawsuit is not opposed to the buildup as a whole, only the military’s preferred location for the firing range, which the Defense Department has said the Marines need for daily training.

Defense officials have assured that the Pågat area will still be accessible to the public on a near-daily basis, and that gunfire won’t damage the ancient sites, but firing range protesters are still opposed to any range in the area.

The lawsuit’s filing coincides with a visit by Washington, D.C.-based Joe Ludovici, the new executive director of the Joint Guam Program Office, which has coordinated much of the buildup, including the Environmental Impact Statements.

Ludovici met with the Legislature yesterday and spoke briefly about the Pågat lawsuit afterward.

He has no alternatives to Pågat, he said, but he’s “all ears” for a compromise.

“I think it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to ask Guam not to meet their objectives. ... I don’t think they’re asking me not to meet my objectives,” Ludovici said. “They’re just saying ‘Well, we’re not sure they’re aligned yet. Because your objectives include my land, and we want you to meet your objectives on your land.’ And I’m saying, I’m not sure I can do that.”

On Wednesday, Ludovici said land acquisition for the proposed firing range was one of the complicated challenges JGPO must tackle in the coming year. The Defense Department must acquire Guam territorial and privately owned land for the range, but so far, most discussions about land have revolved around what the military wants, he said.

More “candid discussions” are needed, Ludovici said on Wednesday.

“We don’t have alternatives that we could consider, but I want to start ... from where we are, and let them maybe start from where they are, and then maybe see what happens,” Ludovici said.

In a press release, Guam Delegate Madeleine Bordallo said she, too, had urged the Defense Department to look at other sites and questioned if alternatives had been fully explored.

“I remain unconvinced that a deal could be reached to lease government of Guam land near the Pågat cultural and historical site without major changes to the current plans,” Bordallo said in the release.

Island lawmakers have also said they won’t agree to any lease of Guam government land for a firing range in the Pågat area.

During a Guam Preservation Trust press conference Thursday, chief program officer Joe Quinata said the island is united behind the firing range lawsuit, so it could not be ignored.

“Practically every segment of this community have shown their support to save Pågat Village,” Quinata said. “We were hoping not to come to this juncture, but we have to. They have not listened to us. They have not taken any action to what we would like to see. And so now we come to [this juncture] and say that enough is a enough.”

Leevin Camacho, a representative of We Are Guåhan, said plans for a firing range near Pågat is the “most glaring example that the Defense Department made its decision a long time ago about how the buildup was going to proceed.”

According to the lawsuit, the Defense Department’s selection of Pågat violates the National Environmental Policy Act, the National Historic Preservation Act and the Coastal Zone Management Act. Most of the alleged violations mentioned in the lawsuit stem from the National Environmental Policy Act, which covers the Environmental Impact Statement process that ended in July.

According to the lawsuit, the Defense Department:

• Did not consider “cultural resources” when considering where to place a firing range on Guam, but did consider cultural resources in other decisions.

• Dismissed alternative sites — such as Tarague Beach, Naval munitions sites, Orote Point — but did not provide analysis to justify the dismissal, and didn’t consider a firing range at Tinian at all.

• And considered only one tract of civilian land — Pågat — for the firing range site, even though the NEPA process requires that more off-base locations be studied. Examples provided in the lawsuit include the west coast of Piti, Pago Bay, the southwest coast of Agat and the southeast coast of Inarajan. After these four civilian sites were suggested, the military discussed them briefly in the Record of Decision. Maps in that document show that any ranges at these locations would overlap with major roads, including Marine Corps Drive and Route 4, and residential areas.

The lawsuit was filed in the District Court of Hawaii because that is where the Environmental Impact Statements were drafted, Yost said.