Engineer Update Previous Story Back to Contents Honolulu District cleans up PCBs on Saipan Article by Doug Makitten Photo by Frank Ono Honolulu District Honolulu Engineer District's cleanup project in Tanapag Village on the island of Saipan in the Pacific Ocean has reached an important milestone. The work began last August and was completed at the end of March. This is the latest accomplishment in a story that dates back to the 1960s. The contamination resulted when PCB fluid leaked from capacitors that apparently were once used at the Army's Kwajalein Atoll military installation in the 1960s. As yet, the district has been unable to determine how the capacitors reached Saipan and how they were moved to various sites in Tanapag Village.
Workers place plastic sheeting to contain the contaminated soil.
The CNMI Department of Environmental Quality reported the capacitors to EPA in 1988. The EPA asked the Army if it could use DoD funds to remove the PCBs from the soil and the Army agreed. The District began the Tanapag cleanup in 1991, and the just-completed work is the third phase of project. Since the beginning, the district has coordinated all cleanup efforts with CNMI and EPA officials, and kept local villagers informed as well. The third phase of the project was done with EPA oversight under an EPA administrative order issued under Section 7003 of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.