108 RADIOLOGICAL CLEANUP OF ENEWETAK ATOLL project yet presented. The Committee’s questions were incisive and exhaustive. LTG Johnson’s opening statement provided a general description of the project and of DNA’s efforts to minimize costs and obtain necessary funding. He then presented a statement from the Honorable Samuel W. Lewis, Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations, which emphasized the awkward U.S. position caused by the Enewetak and Bikini situations. They were of continuing concern in the Trusteeship Council and Security Council of the United Nations. The use of the atolls for nuclear testing had appeared to some as an abuseofour trusteeship in the first place. Twenty years had passed and the United States still had not been able to fulfill its obligation to return the people of Enewetak to their atoll in safety. The United States, which had introduced the idea of trusteeship to protect underdeveloped nations until they became selfsufficient, was under especially keen scrutiny since the TTPI was the only one of eleven trust territories established by the United Nations which had not achieved self-sufficiency. A timely appropriation of funds to resolve the Enewetak matter was essential to successful termination of the Trust in 1981 and to the best interests of the United States. 2! LTG Johnson also presented a letter from Deputy Secretary of Defense William D. Clements urging favorable action on the appropriation. Mr. Clements believed it to be in the national interest, in order to avoid a host of political and legal liabilities in the posttrusteeship period, to make the dri-Enewetak less reliant on financial assistance and to promotea political environment in the Marshall Islands which would support continued use of the Kwajalein Missile Range by the United States. 2!! Rear Admiral William J. Crowe, Jr., of ASDUSA), presented a statement supporting the project as a prerequisite to ending the Trusteeship and avoiding political and legal liabilities in the posttrusteeship period.2!2 . Mr.Mitchell, the people’s legal counsel, then presented a lengthy statement on their behalf. It chronicled their hardships during the war, their exile to Ujelang Atoll, and the hardships they had suffered there, — wm oe eS including crop failures, rats, and starvation. Enewetak was not United States property. It belonged to the dri-Enewetak and had, Mr. Mitchell stated, been taken from them without their consent. The use of Enewetak for nuclear testine had been of immense value to the United States, with peacetime as well as wartime applications. over $10.6 billion on nuclear testing at Enewetak Atol! between 1950 and 1959. The cost of restoring the atoll would be insignificant in comparison, whether it was $20 million or $100 million. The real values to be considered were the total cost of the nuclear test program, including restoration of the atoll, and what that program had produced for the Planning and Programming 109 United Ama re Stat ate: es in th ¢ way of ) , nucleai r we;apons5 and i security | ard Wo Tren ie ( for ; restoration would cost per individual resettled 13 Ys, Johannes Peter and Binton Abraha m, confirmed the interpreter. Donald Capelle. commitnnn mittee egusse d at length both the writ ten agreements which mitted niled slates to return the atoll and the authoritiy signatortes to make $such com of mitn lents. It was decii ded that soese hea ‘ provided that authority in Title 48, USC, Section 168] 214 wongress boon “madeto the aaoned had the amount of payments which had already 5 oO thtne dri-Enewetak for u s€ of f the atoll, especial hee ene ex gratia paymen t made In trust in 1976. Mr. Mitchel explained recognition re . paymen t for use of the atoll, but an Outright gift in reo n OF the hard 7 ships the people had sulle red at Ujelang. It w: a ease payment or a pay ment of damages, but a gift, intended ty these ele ene: Since it was a trust fund, they received only St, abo 7 ut per person per year, , or 43¢ er persc ahead ral amount, é even for the Marshall Isla nds ns on pen cay an re © Pr problem m of subs subsis istence was dijIscussed further, especi: possibility of radioactivity in the food. ERDA represen tatives resented a ER ra report on radi. olog . wo ical conditions at the atol l and protection of an nat as Was presen ted.2!6 The committee was advised that th rent plan did not envision soil r emoval fro 1 m Enj j ebj .2! 7 was not planned to be used for 3 i residence. 218 wo and the island na Jti € cleanup of Runit also Tec rece ece e ;lved | special i attenti ntion, LTG John Ouinee eat? Ronit el might have to be rem oved from the Fig/ Quine é nit. plutonium contaminaati t; on on Runit i a rade saree would be rem oved and encapsulated. The isla nd would be rome {° work on and to visit.¢20 In the event funding lim its prevented Use canup of Runit, the project would have to be cancelled or the he Ge oa ee 16retain indefinite control over the atol l, i.e., continue . ne tranu ntiac of KuRunit ni . In res es‘SIponse ‘ to ia CCongressii onal inqJuiry ui on tl > uir pact of a fund limitation, LG Johnson stated that it was his view that. before th removed. 221] Me , alternatiy OFreducing lotal costs were discussed in detail, including: €s for disposal of contaminated material; the option to leave g,