Thank you Miss Earth Diva

I had a letter to the editor appear in both papers today:

I would like to extend a warm si yu'us ma'ase to the sponsors, contestants and organizers of the very successful Miss Earth Diva pageant.

Environmental outreach is one of the most important activities of the Beautify CNMI coalition and your partners are very appreciative of all the hard work you put into promoting environmental stewardship during the pageant.

Congratulations on a successful event and thank you once again for your support.

Angelo Villagomez
Gualo Rai, Saipan

The pageant organizers donated $100 to Beautify CNMI to support our environmental programs. I am going to use the money to pay for the new t-shirt design. The money to print the shirts is coming from the revenue we raised during last year's Jake Shimabukuro concert.

Thank you

Friday was an amazing day. Thank you. Thousands of people came together for a single cause: a more beautiful Saipan. Young and old, citizen and non-citizen, local and non-local, government workers and business owners volunteered a few hours of their time to pick up the trash littering our beautiful island. Later this week the islands of Tinian and Rota will do the same. Again, Thank you.

Our results were staggering. The final numbers are still being tallied, but our preliminary count shows 4040 volunteers, 55 volunteer groups and 48 adopted sites on Saipan, and 12,960 lbs of trash removed from our streets, beaches, and parks.

The collaboration between groups to make this island wide cleanup a success was enormous. Division of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and Rotary Club of Saipan handled most of the pre-cleanup coordination and sign-ups. Marianas Visitors Authority, Marianas Tourism Education Council, McDonald’s, and the Kramis Family provided funds for supplies and prizes. On the day of the cleanup DEQ, Bureau of Environmental Health, and Division of Parks and Recreation coordinated all of the trash pickup. Additionally there were 55 volunteer group coordinators, who ensured that their adopted site had rubber gloves, trash bags, and most importantly, volunteers.

In every way, from the total number of volunteers, to the number of participating groups, to the amount of litter removed, this year’s cleanup was bigger than anything the Beautify CNMI coalition has ever accomplished.

Furthermore, if the success of this cleanup has anything to teach us, it is that the government does not have the sole responsibility of solving our social problems, nor do they hold a monopoly on having the ability to fix them. We just showed that with a slight change in ethic and a small amount of effort on everyone’s part we can move mountains, in this case a 6.5 ton mountain of cans, bottles, and cigarette butts.

Unfortunately, Saipan’s streets and beaches will be covered in litter by the end of the week. Over the weekend hundreds of people went to the beach and left their trash, cigarette butts and cans are still being thrown out of cars, and homestead residents continue to dump their trash in the jungle.

Instead of being discouraged by this realization, I ask all of you to become reenergized. Change happens. The success of Beautify CNMI over the last three years and this latest cleanup are proof of that. Let us redouble our efforts to turn the Marianas into the cleanest, safest islands in the Pacific.

I encourage the volunteer groups that participated in this cleanup to adopt their spot for the next 12 months. Become the steward of that road, beach, or park for the next year.

I also encourage the eight government agencies charged with enforcing our litter laws to start making examples of some of the worst litter offenders. Hand out a few of those $500 tickets to businesses not properly storing their garbage or to residents dumping their trash illegally.

Finally, I encourage our donors to continue supporting our cleanup efforts. We cannot paint over graffiti if we do not have paint and we cannot pick up litter if we do not have garbage bags.

Volunteers, government policy, and business support are the three legs on which Beautify CNMI stands. The continued involvement of all three will improve the quality of life for the people that live here and make us a more desirable tourism destination.

Again, thank you to all who have supported the concept of Beautify CNMI over the last three years and to everyone who participated in this historic island wide cleanup. I look forward to many more years of collaboration and hard work as we move towards a more perfect Commonwealth.

Angelo Villagomez
Beautify CNMI

Litter Discussion

A few weeks ago during the monthly cleanup of the Garapan tourist district, one of the volunteers, a student at Saipan Southern High School, confided in me that participating in the cleanup made her really frustrated and angry.

Having done 30 cleanups of Garapan since October 2006, I understood where she was coming from. We clean it up every month, as do a number of other groups including the Department of Parks & Recreation, but it is still a mess when we come back on the first Sunday of every month.

Anyway, I suggested to the student that she write a letter to the editor expressing her frustrations. It was published in the Marianas Variety yesterday.

Letter to the Editor: Stop littering

I AM a sophomore at Saipan Southern High School. Last week I participated in the Beautify CNMI monthly cleanup of Garapan and was terribly frustrated by all the garbage I found in almost every corner. After spending 90 minutes under the hot sun, my partner and I filled up about four huge bags with trash. The majority of this trash consisted of beer bottles, paper plates, and cans — all things that could have easily been disposed of properly.

When I went home, I looked up some information about littering. I found that the CNMI has a Commonwealth Litter Control Act of 1989 (Public Law 6-37) that provides for a $500 fine for littering and that the Division of Environmental Quality, the Mayor’s Office, the Department of Public Works, the Department of Public Safety, the Department of Public Health, the Division of Fish & Wildlife, Coastal Resources Management, the Department of Land and Natural Resources, and the Marianas Visitors Authority all employ litter control officers.

Knowing this information, I wonder how many litter tickets have been issued in the last 12 months?

If our Commonwealth Litter Control Act were enforced, we would have a cleaner island. A cleaner island would benefit tourism and improve the quality of life for everyone who lives here.

I ask that the government enforce our litter law so that people like me don’t have to spend our weekends picking up other people’s garbage. I also realize that the community and businesses are responsible and I ask that they stop littering and put pressure on those who do to stop.

JACQUELYN JOHANNA B. DAVID
San Antonio, Saipan

The Marianas Variety ran a follow up story to the letter in today's paper.

Saipan has litter control officers but littering continues
BY EMMANUEL T. EREDIANO - VARIETY NEWS STAFF

THE litter control officers certified more than two years ago have other full-time jobs in different government agencies and this prevents them from going after violators of the Litter Control Act, Division of Environmental Quality spokeswoman Reina Camacho said.

The litter control officers can issue citations and report violations whenever they witness people dumping trash in public premises, she said.

But littering usually happens either at night or early in the morning — when litter control officers have not yet reported for work, she added.

Camacho said DEQ has only one solid waste enforcement officer who can issue citations to commercial and industrial establishments that violate anti-litter law.

In Sept. 2006, 20 litter control officers were provided citation booklets, summons, sheets for narrative report and the Litter Control Act Complaint report during the signing of the National Public Lands Day Proclamation at American Memorial Park.

They were also provided uniforms — dark blue T-shirts with yellow print on the back.

Those who were certified were personnel of the Division of Environmental Quality, Coastal Resource Management. the Department of Land and Natural Resources, the Department of Public Works, the Saipan Mayor’s Office and the Marianas Visitors Authority.

The officers also went to schools and met with different community groups to discuss the anti-littering law which imposes a maximum fine of $500.

A month later, the officers published a photo of the trash dumped at the 13 Fishermen Memorial Pavilion and warned the people responsible that they would be cited next time.

Camacho, in an interview yesterday, said she did not receive citations from the litter control officers in fiscal year 2008.

But DEQ continues to spearhead monthly cleanups, she added.

The problem, she said, is that “litter bugs” never tire of dumping trash — every time DEQ and volunteers conduct a cleanup, there’s always trash to pick up.

Since the government still has to address its manpower issue in able to fully enforce the law, Camacho said officials may want to consider using surveillance cameras to identify violators.

I'm not going to give a treatise on littering in the CNMI in this blog post, but it does not surprise me that not a single litter citation was handed out in 2008. There are a number of factors contributing to this, number one being the extreme aversion the CNMI government has towards enforcing laws. In many instances the apprehending officer feels bad for the perpetrator and will just let him go. Or the attorney prosecuting the case won't want to push for a stiff sentence. Or the judge will let him off with a $25 fine and time served. And I'm not just talking about littering.

The other problem is that in making enforcing the litter laws everone's job, they in effect made it nobody's job. There are eight government agencies responsible and it is easy for one of them to pass the buck to the next.

At the same time, the Legislature is trying to write revenue generating bills, which is an Orwellian synonym for raising taxes. If the litter laws were enforced, we wouldn't need to increase the cost of doing business by increasing fees.