Good morning Guam!
The Governor is encouraging our community to help put an end to illegal dumping. The transcript of the address is below and you can watch the video here: Basta Y Basula.
Hafa adai my friends and family,
 
This week, Basta Y Basula, a team I created to address illegal dumping will be cleaning up one of the island’s worst illegal dumpsites. This is just the first of what is, unfortunately, many areas where people feel its OK to just toss their trash into our jungles and swamp lands.
 
The Department of Public Works and Guam Environmental Protection Agency will be leading this particular effort to clean illegal sites, and I want to thank Miguel Bordallo, General Manager of Guam Waterworks Authority, for providing assistance.
 
I wanted to talk to you today about helping us protect our island’s beauty and our island resources.
 
There are illegal dumping areas throughout the island – some of them are so bad you can see the trashed areas on Google Earth. That just saddens and frustrates me. This is our home. Why would we want to see the beauty of the paradise we’ve been blessed with marred by unsightly and unhealthy trash? In some areas, particularly up north, there is trash piled up in areas that are right above our water lens – as little as 20 feet of limestone and dirt is all that separates the trash from the water that we drink, that we bathe in, that we use to cook our food.
 
Basta Y Basula, which includes my senior staff, the Office of Lt. Governor’s Islandwide Beautification Task Force, Guam EPA, DPW, Guam Police Department, Department of Parks and Recreations, Bureau of Statistics and Plans, and the Department of Education will be working on an educational campaign as well as looking for ways to strengthen Guam’s laws to hold people accountable for their trash. We also continue to look at ways, working with Solid Waste Authority, to encourage people to sign up for curbside trash pickup.
 
I urge everyone to do their part. Please sign up for trash pickup. If you can’t for whatever reason, call Guam EPA at 300-4751 or my office at 472-8931 and ask for Community Affairs.  We’ll see what we can do to help.  Or if you see someone dumping trash, please take a photo of the vehicle and give EPA a call.
 
We must do all we can to protect our island. Remember, we’re only here for a short while before we turn this land over to our children and grandchildren. Let’s make sure what we leave for them is a legacy of beauty as well as a sense of duty to protect their island home.
 
Thank you and God bless us all.
 

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