The Chief of the Civil Division of the Attorney General's Office, Julia Furlong, told a hearing of the House Commerce Committee that the AG's Office did not provide any legal advice to the Project Notification and Review System Board (PNRS) prior to the issuance of the land use permit for the met tower project for the American Samoa Power Authority in Manunu. She said it was after a complaint was made regarding the land use permit that the Attorney General asked herself and other staff to research issue. Rep Andra Samoa believes the PNRS Board failed to perform due diligence on the land use application,. She asked the attorney to disclose AG's Office advice to the board, specifically Title 24 of the American Samoa Code Annotated and Title 26 of the American Samoa Code. Title 24 of the ASCA states that the PNRS Board shall require an environmental assessment if among other things: the Board finds a new or expanded source of pollutants resulting in a potentially dangerous condition having a significant adverse impact on the health, safety, and welfare of the public; the Board finds a significant adverse impact to critical habitat; a project, use or activity is Federally funded; a project, use or activity costs more than $250,000. Section 26.0220 of the American Samoa Code states that any proposed project, use or action in a Special Management Area shall be deemed a major project, and must require an advserve impact assessment. When pressed for her own intwrpretation of these two statutes, Assistant AG Furlong gave this response. Play Audio Also at the hearing was Deputy Secretary of Samoan Affairs Tauese Vaa Sunia. He said that he was not familiar with this land use permit and when he got the notice about the hearing he asked to get a copy of the permit application from their office, but there was none. Commerce Committee Chairman, Rep Sam Meleisea has continued the hearing to today. The Committee is waiting on the Department of Commerce to provide copies of all permits that have been issued by the PNRS board since the beginning of this year. Meleisea said the request was made the week before last but as of last Thursday, DOC had not submitted the requested information.
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