Military plan for live-fire test sites sparks suit

Community members and an environmental group on Wednesday sued the US Navy, the Department of Defense and the secretary of defense over a plan to turn two Pacific islands into live-fire testing sites.

The plan calls for using the islands of Tinian and Pagan in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands for military war games.

The training would prevent Pagan's native people from returning to their home island, which was evacuated 35 years ago after a volcanic eruption, and would disrupt communities on Tinian, according to Earthjustice attorneys, who are representing complainants including the Center for Biological Diversity and local community organizations.

The groups filed the lawsuit in federal court in Saipan.

The lawsuit says the National Environmental Policy Act requires the military to consider all of the training's potential effects on the islands and surrounding communities.

Calls seeking comment from the Navy and Department of Defense were not immediately returned.

The Navy did not take into consideration the people involved or the wide-ranging environmental effects, according to the groups. They also allege the Navy failed to consider more suitable locations for the war games.

"The Navy's decision would have devastating consequences for the people of Tinian and Pagan," Earthjustice attorney David Henkin said.

Tinian is a small island in the Northern Marianas with about 3,000 residents, mostly low-income indigenous Chamorro people. The military already uses a small plot on the island for sniper training, according to the lawsuit.

Expanding training would expose residents to "high-decibel training noise, permanent loss of 15 percent of the island's prime farmland soils, destruction of cultural and historic sites, and severe restrictions on access to traditional fishing grounds, cultural sites and recreational beaches," the lawsuit says.

"When the Northern Marianas agreed to remain part of the United States, destroying the northern two-thirds of our island with live-fire training and bombing was never part of the deal," Florine Hofschneider of the Tinian Women's Association said in a statement. "We refuse to accept the Navy's plans to subject our children to nearly constant bombardment."

Pagan, meanwhile, would become a "militarized wasteland," attorneys said. The training would destroy native forests, coral reefs and wildlife on the remote volcanic island. And the indigenous Chamorro and Refaluwasch families who once called Pagan home would be prevented from returning, attorneys said.