‘We cannot allow 2/3 of our island to be well-developed while 1/3 is left behind'

08/12/2025 - Tinian Mayor Edwin Aldan worries about the dichotomy the $800-million military buildup might bring to the island.

Speaking during the question-and-answer portion of the Delegate Kimberly King-Hinds’ From the Hill to the Vill townhall meeting at the Tinian Youth Center last Aug. 5, Aldan said Tinian residents shouldn’t become second-class citizens on their island, while the military is modernizing the U.S. Department of Defense-leased area.

“We cannot allow two-thirds of our island to be well-developed while one-third is left behind. We have to develop both moving forward. We cannot leave ourselves behind, and you will have a sewer system [and we won’t] ... I don't know,” he said.

Aldan added that the Tinian leadership should prepare the island for what’s forthcoming, but the first order of business is to get a city or municipal plan going. 

King-Hinds agreed with Aldan, saying that improving Tinian’s infrastructure vis-à-vis the military buildup has always been part of the ask. 

The congresswoman added that the Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation is supposed to be the U.S. agency that addresses Tinian’s infrastructure needs now that the island is hosting a multi-million-dollar military buildup. 

Known by its acronym OLDCC, it provides technical and financial assistance to states and communities that are eligibility-based, needs-based, and competitive, that enhance the capabilities and readiness of the United States’ national defense mission.

During the same town hall, Senate President Karl King-Nabors explained that the CNMI Department of Public Lands is actually the CNMI agency that needs to furnish the mayor’s offices with a master plan for their respective municipalities. 

“There is an ask for Public Lands for an extension for the master plan as it relates to all public lands in the CNMI. That should have been due already... There's currently legislation being prepared in the Senate and the House for an extension due to the lack of funding,” he said.

A few days later, during a Commonwealth Utilities Corp. board meeting, chair Allen Perez, who hails from Tinian and is Aldan’s chief of staff, asked executive director Kevin Watson about DOD’s supposed plan to open water wells in the military-leased area of the island.

Watson said he has set up a meeting with the Tinian Mayor’s Office and the U.S. Environmental Agency, as DoD is asking for comments, but said when it comes to permitting the opening of water wells on Tinian, it’s under the purview of the Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality. 

“It all draws from the same aquifer. There are no multiple aquifers on Tinian. So, it will affect us. My position is that, you know, if they would like to fund the drilling of multiple wells, that's fine. But the operation and ownership should be turned over to CUC, and we control the quality of the water, the regulations, monitoring, and reporting. All of that should fall under CUC, not the federal government or DoD.”

Makpo is the primary source of drinking water for the island and is Tinian’s only aquifer.

The CUC executive director added that the aquifer on Tinian isn’t the only issue, as the island’s wastewater infrastructure would be hard-pressed to accommodate the expected rush of military personnel. 

“They're going to have up to a thousand personnel there for weeks at a time, and a septic system will not support a thousand, you know, showers and toilets, and to support a thousand personnel. So, it's, it's going to have to be a greater scale of a treatment than a septic system. It's going to have to be, you know, possibly a [treatment] plant or something to that scale,” he said.

Report by Mark Rabago