DRAFY
12/6/78
ACD
|Qa
FOLPA
DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMOUNT TO BE OFFERED THE MARSHALLESE
IN SETTLEMENT OF NUCLEAR CLAIMS
A conservative approach to arrive at a figure for
negotiating radiation damage land claims must involve
setting a value in fee for the land.
Such an approach
is conservative because in effect, it amounts to paying
a full "purchase price" for the land.
The value should
be consistent with work done in connection with preparation for the Kwajalein base negotiations where KMR
land was appraised to have a value in fee of $4,668
per acre,
and mid-atoll corridor land was appraised
to
have a value in fee of $3,500 per acre.
The land
subject to radiation claims varies in quality, but is
considered to
lie
in value between that assigned to KMR
and that assigned to the mid-atoll corridor.
Thus, for
Our purposes it is reasonable to assume a value in fee
of $4,000 per acre.
Eniwetok Atoll has a total
land area of 1,760
acres,
but only about 1,100 acres are subject to a damage claim.
At
$4,000
per acre,
about $4.4 million.
the value
in fee of
this
land is
This figure must be adjusted for
amounts already paid as compensation.
Eniwetok has
received ex gratia cash payments of about $1.2 million
and have been given clear title to land worth about
$.4 million (Ujelang), for a total of $1.6 million.
However,
the
$2.8 million remaining for Eniwetok
($4.4
million value in fee less $1.6 million compensation)
does not take into account the extraordinary $95 million
effort now underway to clean up that atoll.
For
practical purposes, this should satisfy any remaining
Eniwetok land claim because it makes them whole.
Bikini Atoll has a total land area of about 1,900
acres, all of which are subject to a damage claim.
Using the same valuation figure of $4,000 per acre,
the value in fee of this land is about $7.6 million.
The Bikini people have received about $3.4 million in
compensation, but it is open to question whether these
payments should in any way be considered as compensa-~
tion for land damage as opposed to compensation for
disruption of the people's lives.
Depending on whether
Or not these payments are offset against the $7.6 million
land value, the Bikini claim value would range from
$4.2 to $7.6 million.
TT TT