Junk cars littering CHamoru Land Trust property atop Aquifer

Concerned residents spoke up to shed light on the environmental health hazard and hoped these eyesores get cleaned up sooner than later.
Former Veterans Affairs Director Juan Blaz is a land trust resident.
“As you can see behind me, you got all the junk cars and this is only part [of it]. There’s a lot more on the other side,” said Blaz.
Junk vehicles line the roadside of a Yigo neighborhood as far as the eye can see, from Chalan Machete to Chalan Gachai.
Hundreds of feet of CHamoru Land Trust property turned into an illegal dumpsite in recent years.
“Somebody has to do something about this thing,” said Blaz.
Blaz told KUAM he reached out to the Yigo Mayor and the CLTC but nothing has been done.
“The funny thing about this, we are standing on top of the Guam Aquifer. The water lens is down here. So those cars illegally dumped there, who knows what kinds of oils are dripping down,” he said.
It's a similar situation over on Swamp Road in Dededo, also atop our sole source aquifer and again on CLTC property.
These junk cars sparked the attention of Guam Fire Captain John Sablan.
“If you notice on your way here, a lot of the cars have been burned. What we noticed trending is that a vehicle would be dragged out to the side of the road and maybe the next day and evening, somebody will light it on fire,” said Sablan.
He showed KUAM around Arora Street, a known hotspot for the Dededo fire station.
“Over the past couple of years, the Guam Fire Department has been dispatched to this particular area. When we get here, it's just trash. Sometimes it's cars, sometimes it's new trash that’s been dumped here,” said Sablan.
He believed there were multiple people responsible to include a distributor who dumped countless plastic bottle caps and burned the evidence the same day.
“We are in communication with epa and they are aware of this particular site. I believe they are working with the mayor and CHamoru Land Trust to figure out what to do and how we can stop this,” he added.
From Yigo to Dededo, it’s a serious littering issue on CLTC property that Yigo Mayor Anthony Sanchez called a funding problem.
Each year under the Recycling Revolving Fund, $1 million is divided among the 19 villages to help with the clean up but he says disposal costs them $400 per car.
He told KUAM he would need to get authorization from the CLTC to remove the junk cars, but said even then, their budget is not enough to tackle every car.
It should be noted, with a recently passed law, junk cars are now considered litter and violators can be fined up to a thousand dollars, which reimburses the recycling revolving fund.
KUAM also reached out to the CLTC for comment.