Guam – The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation or ACHP is concerned about the latest version of the Programmatic Agreement.
The agreement outlines how DOD is to deal with the cultural and historic artifacts that it impacts as a result of the buildup.
One of the concerns of the ACHP is the lack of committed funding to things like a Guam museum as part of the agreement as well as a lack of committed funding for the severely short staffed Guam State Historic Preservation Office. Chief among their concerns however is the Navy’s decision to locate the firing range complex in the area of the ancient Pagat village.
In a letter to Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy Don Shregardus the ACHP says “despite comments by the ACHP and similar comments submitted by numerous other consulting parties the commitment to locate the range complex at Pagat has only been solidified in this most recent draft.” The ACHP also encourages DOD to be “responsive to the comments of the consulting parties” and to make substantive changes that will result in a programmatic agreement that can be executed.
