More than a year after Gov. Eddie Calvo
instructed the Guam Environmental Protection Agency to test for traces
of Agent Orange, a hazardous defoliant, actual sampling and testing have
yet to take place but a work plan is now being developed.
Guam
EPA public information officer Nic Rupley on Friday said a contractor
hired by the military is now finalizing a work plan, which serves as a
guide for sampling, how the testing will be carried out and how the
outcome will be interpreted, among other things.
Rupley
said Guam EPA has been working with the Department of Defense on the
Agent Orange investigation. He said the military awarded a contract to
develop the work plan, but a contract for the field work, which includes
actual sampling and testing, has yet to be awarded.
Vice
Speaker Therese Terlaje wrote a Feb. 1 letter to Guam EPA Administrator
Walter Leon Guerrero, seeking an update on the Agent Orange
investigation that the governor asked the agency to conduct in January
2017.
"I
am hoping that we can shed light on this investigation in order to find
answers for our residents and veterans," Terlaje wrote. Local
residents, she said, have stated that family members who worked on
military properties have since died from cancer.
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