APpos Ew BAGG b -6- ont * Drinking oS a) Water The primary source of drinking and cooking water for Bikini inhabitants is unprocessed rain water obtained from cisterns attached to the newly constructed buildings along lagoon road. The cisterns collect water drained from the windward roof of each building. Ground water has also | been used for drinking purposes in perjods of drought and will be used in the future when ever cistern water is unavailable. There is presently a high demand for the ground water for agriculture on Bikini Island. - Three of the cisterns were first sampled jin June 1975 and analyzed for 137 Cs, 90 Sr, and plutonium radionuclides. - Shown in Table 1. The results” are abstracted and From an examination of the fallout in rainfall at other Pacific Islands over the period of 1968 to 1974, it was concluded* that the 90 Sr and by anaology, 137,Cs and 239,240 Pu concentrations in the cistern water did not result solely from world wide fallout. The cisterns contained levels of radionuclides that were locally derived. In support of this contention, two. water samples collected in October 1975 from the drinking water tanks on the ERDA supported Marshall Island Research vessel, the R.V. Liktanur, contained 0.6 + 0.2 pCi/2 of 0.09 + .04 pCi/e of Wile. 239,240 Pu and This water comes from the rain water supply collected at Kwajalein Atoll. Th e 239,240 Pu and 137 ‘”’Cs concentrations in Marshall Island rainfall are then approximately 1/20 of the concentrations in the Bikini cisterns. We therefore conclude that the Bikini cistern water contains small, butnevertheless significantly elevated, levels of plutonium radionuclides above those expected from world wide fallout. The higher concentrations could originate*from leaching of the concrete cisterns ‘ A OM oe i 3 Cee