A ship departs Apra Port, Naval Base Guam, March 15, 2018. (Stacy Laseter/US Navy)

Building the $1.7 billion missile defense system proposed for Guam could have significant consequences for housing, health care and the island’s natural environment, according to a draft environmental impact statement from the Missile Defense Agency.

Construction of the enhanced integrated air and missile defense system will take about 10 years and will bring more than 2,000 contractors, Department of Defense personnel and their families to Guam, according to the 678-page report released last month.

Effects on housing, health care and the environment could be “significant and long-term,” with serious consequences for Guam’s low-income and minority residents, according to the impact statement.

The missile defense project coincides with plans to add nearly 5,000 additional Marines to the recently established Camp Blaz and bring three more coast guards at Naval Base Guam.

Overall, the island’s already strained health system, housing market and at-risk natural environment are facing further delays, shortages and degradation, according to the report.

The Defense Department is “looking holistically” at the project’s needs, including housing and medical facilities, and a more in-depth assessment is expected in the future, said Fred Hair, a Defense Agency spokesman. missile defense, to Stars and Stripes by email Friday.

360 degree protection

The agency aims to build 16 sites around the island to provide 360-degree protection against cruise missile, ballistic and hypersonic attacks by potential adversaries including China, North Korea and Russia.

Guam, a 210-square-mile U.S. territory, could become an important hub in a regional conflict because of its location 1,500 miles west of the Philippines.

Construction of the missile defense project will require approximately 400 workers per year over a 10-year period, as well as approximately 1,000 people to manage it. According to the draft impact study, another 1,300 dependents are also expected on the island.

The influx represents only 1 percent of Guam’s approximately 168,000 residents, but it coincides with the planned arrival of 1,300 Marines as a permanent garrison at Camp Blaz, and 3,700 Marines. transferred from Okinawa as a rotational force, according to the report.

Together, they represent a 4 percent increase in Guam’s population, but the missile defense system alone could further strain Guam’s already overburdened health care system and housing supply.

Guam Memorial Hospital in Tamuning is one of three hospitals on the island, the others being the U.S. Naval Hospital Guam and the Guam Private Regional Medical City. (Alex Wilson/Stars and Stripes)

“Medically underserved”

The impact on Guam’s health care system is expected to be “long-term, major and significant,” according to the report.

The island is considered a medically underserved area by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, meaning it suffers from a shortage of primary health care services.

Its rural and remote location hampers efforts to recruit medical specialists, forcing residents who need that care to travel at their own expense to Hawaii or the U.S. mainland, according to the report.

“The increase of 2,300 new residents could place additional strain on Guam’s public medical resources, which have already long experienced a need for additional health professionals and specialists to support the existing population,” the report said.

Most of those affiliated with the defense project will have access to medical facilities at the island’s military bases, but at least 274 contractors will be able to rely on local health services, according to the report.

Impact on housing

This influx could also put a strain on the island’s real estate market. Guam faces a significant shortage of affordable housing, and Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero in July created a Housing Achievement Commission to address rising construction costs and high mortgage rates.

To ease some of the tension, the Defense Department plans to gradually bring missile project personnel to Guam and house most of them on military bases. DOD contractors and civilian employees would live in surrounding communities.

The 16 missile project sites are on 900 acres of DOD property, but construction would destroy 269 acres of Guam’s native limestone forest, which is home to at least two endangered species.

The Mariana fruit bat and the Cycas micronesica tree are listed as threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; both are found primarily in the limestone forests of Guam.

The missile project would remove about 4,900 Cycas micronesica trees, or 1 percent of the remaining trees, the report said. The species’ population has declined at an annual rate of 8.1% due to further construction, climate change, and various pests.

The impacts on limestone forests, Cycas micronesica trees and fruit bats would be “major, direct, long-term and significant”, according to the environmental impact study.

The Missile Defense Agency suggests mitigation efforts, primarily by enhancing a proportionate area of ​​limestone forest elsewhere.

However, impacts would remain significant even with successful mitigation efforts, according to the release.