2.3.2
following
Ground
way.
accumulates
in
Rain
the
Water.
water
underlying
Ground
drains
water
through
porous
rock
and
accumulates
the
permeable
sand matrix
as
in
the
soil
and
a
roughly
lens-shaped body of fresh water, floating on the denser salt water.
Mast
of the fresh water is rapidly mixed with the underlying salt water by wave
and tidal
central
activity, leaving only a very thin fresh layer,
portion of the
island.
The smaller the
mixing occurs; hence the smaller the
usually in
the
island, the more rapidly
freshwater body.
water is thought to exist on the smaller islands.
No
potable
In the Marshall
ground
Islands,
the chloride standard for potable water has been set at 400 mg/l compared
to 250 mg/l in the U.S.
During the summer drought of 1984, four of seven wells
on Bikini were dry and none had potable water.
the
Federal
Appendices
standards
None of the wells has met
for cesium-137 or strontium-90
A and B).
Two of four wells on
(Table 4)
Eneu were
(12, and
functional
and
had
potable water; the quantities observed could have met the needs of 200-250
persons with careful
use (Appendix A).
These wells were located close to
the runway.
It
initiated to
studies
should
is
estimate
include
therefore
the
potential
the
aerial,
recommended
for
ground
vertical
and
that
detailed
water
studies
development.
seasonal
changes
in
be
The
both
salinity and radioactivity.
On
contaminated
layer
of
Bikini,
soil
in
removal
presumably
radioactivity in ground water.
rooting zone and
the
of “the
would
uppermost,
materially
heavily
reduce’
the
We note that the cesium-137 levels in the
ground water on
Bikini
are
both more
than
10
times
those of Eneu.
On
treatment
Yevel
(Section
the
other
4.4) would
in ground water.
not
hand,
potassium-fertilizer
be expected to
the
cesium-137
Whether or not it would increase the level would be
checked in the pilot trials recommended for next year.
2000021
reduce
blockade
22
,