A ship departs Apra Harbor at 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 the island’s housing, health care and natural environment, according to a draft environmental impact statement from the Missile Defense Agency.

According to the 678-page report released last month, the Enhanced Integrated Air and Missile Defense System will take about 10 years to build and bring more than 2,000 contractors, Defense Department personnel and their families to Guam.

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

The missile defense project coincides with plans to add nearly 5,000 more Marines to the newly established Camp Blaz and bring three more Coast Guard cutters at Naval Base Guam.

In all, the island’s already stressed health care system, housing market and at-risk natural environment are set for further delays, shortages and degradation, according to the report.

DOD is “holistically evaluating” the needs of the project, including housing and medical facilities, with additional evaluation expected in the future, Missile Defense Agency spokesman Fred Hair told Stars and Stripes via email Friday.

360 degree protection

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

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

Building the missile defense project will require about 400 workers annually over 10 years and about 1,000 people to man it. Another 1,300 dependents are also expected on the island, according to the draft impact statement.

This influx represents only 1 percent of Guam’s approximately 168,000 residents, but coincides with the expected 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 ratio.

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

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

“Medically Served”

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 US Department of Health and Human Services, meaning it has a shortage of primary care services.

Its remote, rural 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 put additional strain on Guam’s public health resources, which already face a long-standing need for additional physicians and specialists to support the existing population,” the report said.

Most people affiliated with the defense project will have access to medical facilities at military bases on the island, but at least 274 contractors can rely on local medical services, according to the report.

Impact on housing

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

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

All 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 threatened species.

The Mariana fruit bat and Cycas micronesica tree are listed as threatened by the US Fish and Wildlife Service; both are found predominantly among the limestone forests of Guam.

The missile project would remove about 4,900 Cycas micronesica trees, 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.

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

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

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