RESETTLEMENT OF PEOPLE 1975 continued Kwajalein: Mid-Corridor landowners and the U.S. sign the first five year extension of the 1970 agreement for use of their islands. The new agreement calls for payment by the U.S. of -$704,000 a wetak, but has retused to employ it at Bikini. " Kwajalein: The Trust Territory begins “Operation Exodus," an attempt to get unemployed people to leave overcrowded year ($352 per capita based on 2,000 More people, however, continue to migrate to Ebeye; others refuse to leave. JULY Kwajalein: U.S.House eligible). Ebeye and return to their home islands. About 300 people leave voluntarily. of Representa- tives subcommittee on Territorial and Insular Affairs holds hearings on Ebeye Operation Exodus fails to reduce the and Majuro chaired by Rep.Patsy Mink. population. After hearing Marshallese testimony ‘Kwajalein: Of the 7,049 people on Ebeye, about job and pay discrimination on Kwajalein, Ebeye residents' limited access only 53% (3,717 are from Kwajalein Atoll, while 3,067 are from other atolls to the excellent Kwajalein hospital and the social problems from overcrowding on in the Marshalls, 167 from other parts Ebeye, Rep. Mink calls the situation on of Micronesia, 27 are from Kiribati and Ebeye "a patent violation of basic human Tuvalu and 71 from the U.S. rights,"’ and demands strong corrective Kwajalein: A severe outbreak of flu fol- action on the parts of the Defense and lowed by many cases of spinal meningitis Interior Departments. with permanent brain damage. DECEMBER Bikini: The U.S. agrees to conduct an aerial radiation survey of the northern Marshalls as a result of the Bikinians' law suit. Three years of bureaucratic infighting follow among the departments of State, Interior and Energy (formerly AEC) over the costs and which agency will take responsibility for the survey. No action follows. Enewetak: The U.S.Congress approves funding for the Enewetak cleanup, to be coordinated by the Defense Nuclear Agency. Congress authorizes $20 million and military logistic support for the massive cleanup, scheduled to take three years. 1977 MARCH Enewetak: About 50 of the Enewetak people who have lived on Ujelang in a U.S.-imposed exile since 1947, returned to Japtan Island in "AS with the shortage of water, the lack of proper sanitary facil- ities is a major.cause of the high southern Enewetak Atoll to help in the rehabilitation program. MAY Enewetak: The cleanup operationat Enewetak begins. About 700 Army men and civilians arrive for the first phase. The cleanup must remove an es- = rate of sickness on Ebeye. Additionally, foul odors and visible pollu- tion are part of the normal envi- timated 125,000 cubic yards of non-con- ronment in which people must live taminated debris, to be dumped in the ocean, and about 100,000 cubic yards of soil and debris contaminated with plutonium and other radionuclides, to be put in a bomb crater on Runit Island and work and the children must play." "Ebeye Redevelopment” Study, Trust Territory Government, April 1978. and sealed with a cement cap. 1976 Kwajalein: The more than 1,000 MarShallese work on Kwajalein primarily at service and maintenance jobs: office clerks, equipment operators, taxi drivers, gardeners, cooks, etc., to keep the missile range functioning. 27 Bikini: The level of radioactive strontium 90 in well water on Bikini Island is found to exceed the U.S. maximum limits. (continued on page 29) ee on Ebeye leaves 12 dead and two children