[Coral-List] Majuro airport project going ahead

[Dean Jacobson]

Listers:

Thanks for suggestions about possible surviving Acropora fragments on Arno... I will try to get there this weekend for a rescue mission.

I was in the field last week when our local paper came out, and I just read that the FAA RSA project at Majuro airport, which presumably includes coral mining at the Reservoir for fill, is now going ahead, after consultations with an office in Guam, and after RMI EPA sent a report.  The manager of our local EPA, Deborah Manasse, was off-island last week, and did not come to work today, so I do not know what report or document she had provided to FAA.  And, I have been unable to speak with the US Embassy... I do not know if an EIA was actually done, or if any coral transplantation will be permitted before the reef is mined.  

Since I do not have any email addresses of the Coral Reef Task Force's All-Islands Committee, who I was told was working on this issue, and who have not yet updated me after our phone conference several weeks ago,  I am sending an appeal to the list for information.  Is the mining of the reservoir reef permitted under Executive order 13089, or are the dominant federal agencies (who now who they are) simply ignoring it?  What mitigation is planned, or required to be planned, by local RMI agencies?  

I initiated a petition, out of desperation, but of course am not allowed to share that here.

At least I will, if all else fails, be able to videotape the coral mining.

Cheers,
Dean Jacobson