House quizzes PNRS over ASPA land use permit for wind tower

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Members of the House Commerce Committee told members of the PNRS Board (Project Notification and Review System) they should not have issued a land use permit for the American Samoa Power Authority (ASPA) to install a met tower at Aoloau.

Met towers are meteorological evaluation towers, sometimes called wind measuring towers and are used to verify the wind characteristics at a potential site for a wind farm.

Members of the PNRS appeared before the House Commerce Committee this week for a hearing to discuss the issue.

The administrator for the PNRS, Aukusitino Mao served as the spokesperson providing answers for faipule during the hearing.

Mao told the faipule yesterday the application was reviewed by the PNRS board and after reviewing the scope of work and a report from a Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources (DMWR) biologist who visited the site, it was determined that the project would not cause any significant impact to the environment.

Mao said the board considered the ASPA project to be a major project.

Fofo Faipule Andra Samoa said that if this is the case, there are requirements for major assessment under Title 26 that the board should consider first before issuing a land used permit.

Samoa pointed out that she helped draft the law, which sets criteria and guidelines for significant or major projects like the ASPA met tower. And she didn’t believe the ASPA application had been fully vetted according to requirements of the law.

She said that the board should assess the project and look if this project has a significant impact on the environment. Samoa said she herself visited the project site and she believes that there is a significant impact.

According to Samoa, the side of the Aoloau mountain where the Met tower is located has a lot of historical sites that need to be preserved.

Samoa found out during the hearing that only one board member went up to the project site to do the assessment — the biologist from DMWR, who provided a report to the board about his finding.

Mao explained that it doesn’t require the whole board to visit. He said the board also received a scope of work that provided the board with information showing that this project would have a minimum impact on the environment and “we approved the land used permit for study only”.

According to Mao, this is just to collect data in order for them in 2- 3 years to come back and apply for a permit to start their actual project.

Mao also pointed out to the committee that if there is a violation to the conditions that were given with the permit, the board can immediately put a stop order on the project.

Samoa still wasn’t satisfied with Mao’s response. She said that based on her 30 years experience with ASPA, it doesn’t require one agency like the DMWR to visit the project site. It requires that all 8 members of the board from different agencies to visit the site and interact with their assessments and observations to ascertain if there are any environmental issues observed at the project site.

“The board shall not issue the land use permit unless they conduct a site visit and do a complete assessment and observation,” Samoa said.

Mao explained that the board’s job is to make the final decision based on the report provided by the staff from each agency that conduct the assessment.

He said representatives from various agencies took part during the assessment and they were the ones who prepared the report and presented it to the board for evaluation.

“So for the board, we based our decision on reports and assessment provided to us by our staff,” Mao said.

Leasina Faipule Ape Mike Asifoa shared his concern over the project. He wanted to know if there is way the board can cancel the land use permit they already issued.

Mao explained if the family Sa’o decides to remove his signature, the issue will go back to the Samoan Affairs office and a notice would be sent to the board to notify them about the removal of the family Sao’s signature. That’s when the board can cancel the permit.

It was revealed that the plans, which the board reviewed, were produced by an ASPA engineer. Faipule Faimealelei Anthony Allen took issue with this pointing out a conflict of interest. He questioned why an ASPA representative sits on the board when the project belongs to ASPA.

Faimealelei told Mao and members of the board that there are other sons and daughters of American Samoa who can do the job instead of sending an ASPA engineer to do the assessment.

“We want transparency because this person will come with the ‘yes’ answer to the project — that engineer can’t go against his boss because he works for ASPA,” Faimealelei said.

Faimealelei said the issue before the lawmakers is about real estate and this “real estate doesn’t belong to the government, doesn’t belong to you — it belongs to the people of these villages and this is money.”

At a point this generation will be gone and the new generation comes forward, “but the question is, do you own this land? Do you have ties to this land?”

 That is something that people who work for the government need to think about and need to consider because when it comes to family land, it is going to be a hard issue for every family, he said.

Faimealelei said he understands why families who own this land are very concerned with the assessment. He said — “if this were me, this is not the way I would want my land to be dealt with.

“I understand that there is a process and a system ... but guess what happens to this system. The people that run the system and people that sit in it don’t have ethics. They just don’t care.”

The faipule said what bothers him is when Mao told the committee that the board’s decision was based on the reports and the assessment conducted by staff members, not by the board itself.

“You also mentioned during your testimony that once the Secretary of the Samoan Affairs signed off on the documents, the board would act immediately and approve it ... but look at what is going on now, these are the same people that their names are on this piece of land, said Faimealelei, who did not explain what piece of land he was referring to.

“Why are you giving me a piece of land when I don’t have ties on it. This is not right and our people are not foolish,” Faimealelei said.

Vice Speaker of the House, Fetu Fetui Jr echoed Faimealelei’s comments and told members of the board that they shouldn’t base their decision on the signature of the Secretary of Samoan Affairs.

Fetu said their job is to assess the site and do a report before they issue the permit.

Saole Faipule Titialii Kitara Vaiau agreed telling members of the board that they don’t have the right to issue a land use permit if they didn’t do the assessment or a site visit to the project.