Attorney General Fainuulelei Ala’ilima Utu has been urged to look into concerns regarding the wind farm project being proposed by a company called Tutuila Wind Energy and the American Samoa Power Authority.
Resident Ian Gurr, in a June 21st letter to the AG, states that a land use permit that the Project Notification and Review System (PNRS) Committee issued for a wind tower at the site should not have been granted.
Gurr informed the AG that the family who owns the specific piece of land where the MET tower is planned by TWE have not given their consent for their land to be used for this project.
“TWE submitted land use permit applications from 3 different villages for this one specific piece of land, showing that they do not know who the actual owner of this piece of land is,”:wrote Gurr.
“In all three of the applications, though they had village chief signatures, in the section titled “Verification of Communal ownership”, where the family who actually owns the piece of land is identified and their signature placed, this section is blank…”
According to Gurr, this shows that the family who owns this piece of land did not apply for the land use permit or give consent for their land to be used.
Gurr also opined that the Office of Samoan Affairs improperly signed the three land use permit applications.
He pointed out, “The land is not registered and ownership and land boundaries of this specific site and the whole area of Manunu are currently in dispute between at least 5 parties at the Territorial Registrars office and at the Office of Samoan Affairs.”
Additionally, he suspects that not one of the PNRS board members who signed to approve the permit actually visited the site, “with maybe the exception of the ASPA member who should have been excluded from this process since it was ASPA/TWE who applied for the permit.”
This was a problem, said Gurr.
“This lack of an actual visit to the access path and the site,” said Gurr, shows that they could not have made an accurate and truthful judgment of the TWE proposal to see if it is practical or even possible. It is my opinion that an accurate assessment of TWE’s proposal also requires an unbiased engineer to the access path and met tower site to see if the proposal is feasible.”
Gurr declared, “What the American Samoan Government (ASG) and the PNRS board have done, is issue a permit to a foreign company to use a piece of land within American Samoa without identifying or obtaining consent from the American Samoan owner of this land. “
Another concern that he raised is the partners and representatives of TWE.
According to Gurr, efforts to find out the locals involved in the company whose principals are Japanese companies Nippon Koei and Renova, have not been successful.
“My attempts to identify local representatives of TWE from leadership of our American Samoa Department of Commerce and from TWE itself have not been answered or I have been told I am not allowed to know this information.,” said Gurr.
“This information should not be hidden from the public to ensure that there is no conflict of interest in this 100+ million dollar project and that it is conducted honestly and for the benefit of the whole community rather than for the enrichment of a few connected individuals. If any of ASG or ASPA leadership or land owners are representatives or partners of TWE, I would feel this is a serious conflict of interest and the awarding of the project to TWE unethical and illegal.”
Gurr asked that the AG look into these matters and “if your office finds that the PNRS permit has been wrongly issued that this be corrected before work on this project begins and if there is any conflict of interest in this project, that this ASG/ASPA contract to TWE be terminated and the public be made aware of your findings.”
Gurr’s letter is being forwarded to the representative of DOI, ASPA board, US Fish and Wildlife Service, the CEO of TWE and Congresswoman Uifaatali Amata.
