Another round of landfill work for the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station within Okinawa Prefecture, from Ginowan to the Henoko district of Nago, is planned to start as early as March, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.
According to sources, the central government will notify the Okinawa prefectural government before the end of this month of the timing to launch the second round of landfill work, which will cover an area of about 33 hectares at the southwestern part of the site. Since this next landfill site is about five times that of the first landfill site, progress toward the relocation of the Futenma airbase to Henoko will further materialize.
Monday marked a month since the first round of landfill work began for an about 6.3-hectare area at the southwestern part of the planned relocation site. The landfill work has steadily progressed, as about 20 percent of that section has so far been reclaimed. The first landfill site covers about 4 percent of the entire sea area to be reclaimed for the relocation.
The second landfill site is adjacent to the first site, and each site is surrounded by bulkheads. Repair and inspection work for the bulkheads will be completed in late March, and the central government is now expecting to begin landfill work after that.
The Defense Ministry plans to reclaim the first and second sites to almost the same level as sea level, with the first site set for completion as early as April and the second site as early as in 2020. Although it is necessary to eventually fill these areas with more soil, the ministry marks sea-level reclamation as a major milestone because it will clearly define the progress of the landfill work. The two sites will cover about one-fourth of the entire 160-hectare sea area to be reclaimed.
At present, soil for reclamation is landed from transport ships on a bulkhead about 1.5 kilometers north of the landfill site and transported by dump trucks. To implement the landfill work more efficiently and speedily, the ministry is considering two plans: to use the first landfill site after it is filled as a work site to place heavy equipment and other materials there, and erecting two bulkheads where transport ships can dock as early as this summer to make it possible to land soil at multiple locations.
On the other hand, there are no prospects in sight for starting landfill work in the northeastern and other sea areas because bulkheads that will separate landfill sites have not yet been erected. In particular, in the northeastern sea area, it is necessary to transplant a large number of coral living there. However, the current Okinawa prefectural government is opposed to the landfill work, so has not given the green light to the coral transplantation. Given these circumstances, it likely will take time to begin landfill work in the area.
The ministry plans to steadily proceed with the relocation of the Futenma airbase, which has been said by some to be a dangerous airfield, by promoting the reclamation of the two sites in the southwestern area as much as possible. The prefectural government, however, is highly likely to oppose any acceleration of the landfill work.
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