Number: 1977-08
WHEREAS, international industrial interests are planning a massive supertanker transshipment port and oil storage facility in the Palau Island; and
WHEREAS, this installation would require extensive dredging and other disturbance of the biologically-rich and relatively undisturbed Kossel Reef system, which is of high ecologic, scientific, educational, and recreational value; and
WHEREAS, the pollution potential from normal oil pumping operations and tanker accidents in an area where frequent typhoons occur constitute a major threat to the biota; and
WHEREAS, substantial opposition to the super port plan exists among Palauans; and
WHEREAS, alternatives to this site, where environmental impacts and social impacts are less, do exist;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation, in annual meeting assembled March 24-27, 1977, in Washington, D.C., hereby recommends that approval for a transshipment port be delayed until a comprehensive environmental impact statement, assessing possible damage and identifying alternatives, is prepared and released for review in open public hearings; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that, if the environmental impact statement demonstrates that a super port in Palau is environmentally unsound/or socially unacceptable it should be abandoned.