Lemanu meets with US-EPA on federal permitting
Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Gov. Lemanu P.S Mauga met on Monday this week in Honolulu, with U.S Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Region IX Enforcement & Compliance Assurance Division director Amy C. Miller to discuss various topics including federally permitted facilities in American Samoa.
Also covered in the discussion was the U.S Army Corps of Engineer “Notice of Violations” issued against ASG, and hazardous waste shipping challenges and funding opportunities.
A news release yesterday morning from the Governor’s Office explained that the USEPA meeting was the first part of week-long meetings in American Samoa with StarKist, the American Samoa Power Authority (ASPA), the American Samoa Environmental Protection Agency (AS-EPA), and the American Samoa Shipyard Services Authority.
Lemanu thanked USEPA for the support and looks forward to the continued partnership in safeguarding the environment, protecting human health, and improving the quality of life in American Samoa, according to the news release.
Miller was accompanied to the meeting by Tomas Torres director of the Water Division and Environmental Engineer- Infrastructure Section, D. Isaiah Larsen.
Samoa News notes that the Notice of Violation referred to in the news release pertains to stop orders issued for a seawall project in Tula and work at the stream in Nu’uuli.
Meanwhile, the AS-EPA joined the USEPA earlier this month in observing National Pesticide Safety Education Month, with outreach programs at several schools across the territory.
According to AS-EPA, the National Pesticide Safety Month is observed nationwide to heavily emphasize the safe use and disposal of pesticide products and devices in the territory.
For more information on handling pesticides or to report any pesticide violation, please call AS-EPA Pesticide Branch at 633-2304 or email info@epa.as.gov.
Learn more about pesticide safety by visiting (https://www.epa.gov/pesticides.)