Soil Cleanup
Planning
305
to make, based on review and
determl ned that the decisions were his
with all parties concerned with Enewetak cleanup and
tion
“
the islands were not yet
cehabilitati on. Although all the data on all
consulta
reached where decisions had to be made
available, he point had been
so that soll cleanup operations could commence.
since
Two major ¢ hanges which affected soil removal had occurred
the
project
began. First, based on Field Command’s studies,
experience factors, and radiological considerations, estimates of the
columes of soil to be removed had increased significantly. Second,
new guidelines for transuranic contamination limits had been
proposed by the EPA which had been interpreted by the Bair
Committee to require soil cleanup criteria to be lowered significantly;
-e., from 400 pCi/g to 160 pCi/g for food-gathering islands and from
100 pCi/g to 80 pCi/g for agriculture islands.
The factors which had not changed were the charter from the Joint
Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to do the job with the same amountof Service
resources, and in the same amountof time. The planned completion
date was still 15 April 1980.
The Director, as DOD Project Manager, would balance resources
against requirements, exercising responsible stewardship of Service
resources assigned to the project and realizing that cleanup of
radiological contamination could become an endless task. The
decisions that were made must go beyond immediate results and
stand the test of time—30 years in the future—when the impact of
poor decisions would be felt by a people who had already suffered
greatly. Any such decisions would certainly reflect adversely upon the
United States.
In making these decisions, the Director, DNA needed the
participation and advice of all conferees, as well as their
understanding that all the decisions wouid not, in every case, please
everyone. Manyfactors had to be balanced: the people’s benefit, the
funds, the time available, the lack of some data, and most ofall the
fact that soil cleanup must begin as soon as possible. 86
BG Tate reemphasized that the primary goal of the conference was to
dele rmine where to begin soil cleanup and to whatlevels it should be
carti ed
out so that the JTG could start moving soil on | June 1978. He
dese ribed
the constraints as follows:
a. Optimize benefit to the dri-Enewetak/dri-Enjebi.
b.
Stay within $20 million MILCON funding appropriated by Congress.
Ensurethat soil cleanup decisions did not delay the planned 15 April
1980 completion date.
d. Minimize changes in Service/DOE-allocated manpower and
equipment resources.
t.