As the Pentagon expands across the Pacific, Guam offers a warning

A Yigo, Guam resident learned last fall that his household's water contained dieldrin, a pesticide banned in the U.S. since 1987, after a local water authority flyer warned of cancer risk and liver damage. The Air Force base next to the well had listed dieldrin as a chemical of concern since at least 1993 and reported very high levels, though the Pentagon's investigation into the source is still in early stages.

Rear Admiral Brett Mietus, head of Joint Region Marianas, told Grist the command meets every U.S. environmental regulation while spending heavily to defend the island, but did not address the decades-old contamination itself. Guam's broader military legacy includes unexploded ordnance, PCB-tainted fish and groundwater pollutants, alongside an active buildup bringing 5,000 Marines and a new machine gun range near a wildlife refuge.

The Pentagon, the world's largest institutional greenhouse gas emitter, is expanding across the Pacific citing rising tensions with China, with a Chinese submarine missile test near Guam this year underscoring the stakes. Similar buildup fights are underway in Yap and Palau, where indigenous leaders are suing over land and burial sites.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.