i 3 -7- Since DOS-AEC has the responsibility for establishing cleanup criteria, they should have the last word regarding input to DOD-DOI in this area. Environmental Impacts (4) Effects on life systems Soil manipulation (mixing, removal, addition*) for the purpose of cleanup or exposure reduction is likely to have minimal direct effect on human inhabitants of the atoll. However, such procedures if extensively employed are likely to have significant immediate, long term and perhaps irreversible effects on life forms present on and near the atoll. By affecting life systems on which man depends this will also affect human habitants of the atoll. For areas in which radioactivity is uniformly distributed, population exposure will be reduced in proportion to the area manipulated. For this reason such procedures are likely to be most effectively pursued on a selective basis in areas where local high concentrations of radioactivity exist or where inhabitants will spend large fractions of their time. It will be exceedingly difficult even when detailed soil profile data from the radiological survey become available to balance the benefits of population exposure reduction against the consequence to life systems of extensive soil manipulation. have to be deposited somewhere. Soil removed will If deposited in the ocean adjacent to the atoll, the physical effects on marine forms could be severe and will have to be evaluated as will the consequences of adding additional radioactivity to the marine environment.