For Hawaii scientists hoping to stave off harm to a pristine island in the Pacific, maybe it was too good to be true.

Civil Beat reported on Wednesday that Japanese investors appeared to be abandoning plans to use Pagan Island, part of the Northern Mariana Islands, as a dump site for millions of tons of Japanese tsunami debris. 

A government official said the following: 

It appears that the interested investors are no longer interested in shipping and storing tsunami debris due to certain laws in Japan that seemingly prohibit such from occurring.

But reports out of Saipan on Thursday indicate that Japanese investors haven’t given up hope.

The Saipan Tribune reports Minuro Imai, treasurer and secretary of Pagan Development Corp., which has been assisting the investors as saying the following: 

Right now the priority is mining pozzolan on Pagan. But after all the concerns from the Japanese government and others about transporting recyclable tsunami debris are addressed, then they will still consider bringing tsunami debris to Pagan,” Imai told Saipan Tribune.

(Photo Credit: Save Pagan Island)