By November 1976 the scope and duration of ERDA support was becoming more clear and on 2 February 1977 ERDA HQ requested from DNA therelease of the $1.5 million and advised that that sum would support ERDA's field participation for only 15 months. The Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense informed the Director, DNA, (Queisch, 1977.) that "The $1.5 million programmed under military construction (as a convenience) represents a firm limit on obligations for this purpose against military construction funds," and noted further that additional funding requirements should be incorporated in ERDA's fiseal year 1979 budget request. (The $1.5 million was considered sufficient to support ERDA functions through fiseal year 1978.) Initiai DNA cost estimates for the Enewetak cleanup were based on a contractor supplying the work force on a reimbursable basis, with reimbursement to come from Military Construction (MILCON) funds appropriated by the Congress. When Congress balked at the level of funding requested by DNA, and indicated the maximum appropriation would be about $20 million, the DNA planners were forced to develop alternatives which would not depend on MILCON funding. One alternative was to have troops perform all possible labor, thus to transfer substantial manpower costs to the military services and out of the MILCON account. During the course of DNA-DOE negotiations and planning, DNA agreed to provide military service personnel to support operation of the radiation laboratory, and to perform day-to-day field monitoring, dosimetry and recordkeeping pertaining to health and safety of cleanup personnel. The effects of this arrangement were twofold: about 40 labor positions were transferred from MILCON funding to military service payrolls, and health physics responsibilities for monitoring and dosimetry were transferred from DOE to DNA. The DOE/ERSP Technical Advisor assumed an advisory role to the JTG RADCON office on health physics matters. This change in responsibilities reduced DOE funding requirements overthe life of the cleanup project by several million dollars. On 7 April 1977, FCDNA noted in a letter to ERDA/NV that "... an agreement has been reached whereby ERDA Headquarters would provide any additional funds required" (beyond the $1.5 million already allocated). This would seem to end the funding issue—but not so. ERDA advised DNA on 13 September 1977 that ERDA had sought the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval for a reprogramming action, but the action had not yet been approved; efforts at resolution were continuing. In the meantime, ERDA was providing $300,000 on an interim basis rather than recall personnel already deployed and would continue to provide, on a reimbursable basis, resources needed for radiological support to the DOD cleanup. The total project cost was now estimated by ERDA to be $5.194 million through fiscal year 1980. DNA responded to the ERDA letter on 16 September, reiterating the history of the issue and pointing explicitly to the OPLAN, signed by two ERDA representatives, which stated: "ERDA will budget for, and fund, complete radiological effort over and above the $1,500,000 provided from MILCON funds." It was also noted that ERDA's $1.5 million was not reduced pro rata when Congress reduced the MILCON request from $39.9 million to $20 million. ERDA/HQ assembled a notebook of 23 memoranda and letters exchanged among Interior, DNA, OMB, and AEC/ERDA between 7 September 1972 and 16 September 1977 and submitted the notebook to OMB on 27 September 1977. The transmittal letter stated the ERDA position in these words: ". . . the only conclusion permissible from all of this is that ERDA will do the radiological monitoring and certification on a reimbursable basis. On the basis of the understandings in these memoranda, ERDA has not budgeted for these activities. I recommend that OMB determine, in the most expeditious manner, who is going to accommodate the cost and how it should be done so as not to slow down the cleanup activities." (Liverman, 1977.) 95