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| Cleanup Planning
ISLAND PRIORITY DECISION
to what
ext issue was to decide which islands would be cleaned and
i order to provide the most effective use of resources to the
levels v penefit of the people. As in previous discussions, the critical
greatest ations centered on accomplishing a full Case 3 cleanup or cleaning
conside® residential status and leaving undone some of the original tasks
ener the reduction of concentration on Lujor or Runit.! 10
of
uN ring the conference deliberation of this issue, the relative merits
the
AEC Task Group recommendations, the EIS mission statement, and
he Bair Committee recommendations were discussed at length. One
sinant position, which was supported by Field Command, was that the
NEC Task Group recommendations and EIS Case 3 cleanup were
stended to clean up the worst hazards first, the bits of plutonium and
vangenttations over 400 pCi/g on Runit, Aomon, Boken, and Lujor, to
eure that people would not be exposed to them during the thousands of
cours after the cleanup was completed. The proponents of this position
were skeptical that, should any of these islands not be cleaned to
preseribed levels, the people would abide by any quarantine placed or
w
remaining in effect indefinitely.
The dominant counterposition was that the resources should be used to
clean Enjebi to provide moreresidential land for a growing population and
xa restore the traditional homeislandofthe dri-Enjebi. Proponentsof this
position, which included some Field Commandstaff members,considered
sone of the EIS mission, such as the cleanup of Runit, to be peripheral
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and not the best use of resources. They urged that an attempt be made to
clean Enjebi to as near residential level as possible on the assumption that
the 40 pCi/g criteria need not be absolute or that plowing might prove
effective and acceptable.!!! This position had its foundation in the fact that
the Bair Committee recommendations were based on 6 years’ additional
information and understanding of the problems considered by the AEC
Tusk Group and that the cleanup effort and money should be spent to
permit more beneficial use of the islands by the people. With the
information now known about Runit contamination levels and the
VY
subsurface ‘“‘marble cake’’ effect there, coupled with the fact that the
«llowed upperlevel criteria had been changed by the Bair Committee, it no
langer appeared to make good sense to spend a great effort on Runit with
the possibility of never reaching levels which would make that island
usuble for any purpose.
The choice between these two principal alternatives raised the question
of which would have more beneficial results: cleaning a residence island
which possibly could not be used until strontium and cesium levels in its
soland water dropped; or cleaning of Lujor, Boken, and—to a degree—
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