Four environmental groups in the Northern Marianas say the northern two-thirds of Tinian will be blanketed with mortar and artillery bombardment if thousands of US Marines are allowed to relocate to Guam.
Mount Pagan, a proposed high impact area for bombing and fire training. Photo: Dan Lin
The Tinian Women Association, Guardians of Gani, PaganWatch, and the Center for Biological Diversity said the island would be used for target practice if the US Navy's decision to relocate 5000 Marines from Okinawa to Guam wasn't stopped.
The groups filed a motion for summary judgment in federal court last Friday, noting that the Navy's amphibious landing craft will invade Tinian's beaches, destroying precious corals.
They also said that for much of the year, Tinian residents would be cut off from ancestral cultural sites, and subsistence gathering and recreational beaches, profoundly degrading the quality of life on the island.
A beach in Tinian, CNMI, used for subsistence fishing and recreation by local residents. Proposed US military live-fire training would prevent access to this beach much of the year. Saipan is visible just across the water. Photo: Dan Lin
They alleged the same scenario would play out on Pagan, where families with ancestral ties to the island would be barred from resettling there, as its northern half would be converted into a target area for naval shelling, bombs, rockets, artillery and mortars.