eeeeeeEESEN ne,neei e e This is the problem concerned with the planting of coconut seedlings on six of the northeastern islands of the atoll as has been always scheduled in the DOI master rehabilitation plan. In a message of 25 September 1978 (attached as Inclosure 1), I expressed my concern as the DOD cleanup project program manager, and directed that my field agency in Albuquerque work together with all participants in this project to determine alternatives for planting of the some 14,000 coconut seedlings, should it be determined that they could not be planted in the northeastern islands because of radiological reasons. We are actively pursuing this search for alternatives at the present time. On 29 September 1978, I received a letter from Mr. Joe Deal of your staff (Incl 2) which stated that DOE believed "it is not prudent to plan on planting coconuts in the northern islands this growing season." I am disturbed by this response for several reasons: a. Both the cleanup and rehabilitation efforts are at peak momentum. A sudden change at this time to the approved plans for planting in the northeast as recommended in Mr. Deal's letter would seriously disrupt the ongoing program. b. Mr. Deal's letter indicates that the data used in making this recommendation are based upon a survey conducted in 1972 before we had removed soil from the contaminated islands and had disturbed the remaining soil in our cleanup efforts. During the current cleanup project, many soil samples have been taken on these northern islands, but since our task is to clean up the transuranics, your people have analyzed the soil only for these elements and not for the suburanic elements such as 2 [453