BY RACHEL MELCER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
John Applegate, founding chairman of the Fernald Citizens Advisory Board, is about to go through withdrawal.
He is relinquishing his connection to the former Fernald uranium processing plant in Crosby Township -- as well as his job as professor of environmental law at the University of Cincinnati -- to accept a teaching position at Indiana University in Bloomington.
There will be no more lengthy meetings about low-level radioactive waste, vitrification, dose levels or aquifer contamination. He is through mediating discussions between community members, local officials, the Department of Energy and site management company Fluor Daniel Fernald.
He will have to find a new way to spend "thousands of hours" of his time. And he says he will miss it.
"It's been a life-changing experience," he said. "I'm not sure I knew what to expect or had any idea what I was getting into" when the CAB first met in the summer of 1993.
"For a couple of years, it was really an all-consuming activity. But I leave it with a strong belief that when government opens up and really works with its citizens, it can do really terrific things." The advisory board was created to connect the community with the agencies responsible for cleaning up the Fernald site, part of the Cold War nuclear weapons complex. Local officials, concerned citizens and technical experts joined to watch over and help direct the process.
"Somehow, John was able to pull our personalities together in a way that we were able to make cohesive decisions. He's a person who was easy to like and easy to respect," said Jim Bierer, a Ross Middle School science teacher and CAB member who is taking over as its chairman.
Mr. Applegate said he is proud that the CAB completed its 1995 comprehensive report on his watch. And he is confident that Mr. Bierer and the rest of the panel will see it though to implementation.
And he is pleased that the CAB united behind a "balanced approach" to the cleanup: Instead of insisting that every inch of radioactive material be hauled off and dumped somewhere else -- at great expense and as a potential shipping hazard -- the group agreed that the bulk of very low-level hazardous materials can be stored on the Fernald site. Only the more dangerous items are being moved to the Nevada Test Site and other qualified dumps.
"That takes into account the needs not just of this community, but of other communities as well," he said.
Mr. Applegate also said he has enjoyed working with DOE and Fluor Daniel officials, who over the years have come to respect and work with the CAB in a productive way.
"He has led the group to make some very valuable recommendations," Fluor Daniel spokeswoman Kathy Graham said. "He's been a very effective leader, and his style and approach have been exactly what we were looking for."
The former chairman will always be remembered for a board game he created based on the Fernald site. Players could move around piles of waste, try different means to dispose of them and try to stick to a budget.
"The main idea was to get discussion going. To get people, first, to understand the issues and, then, to figure out what they wanted to do. It gave them a sense of the consequences of the decisions that they made," Mr. Applegate said.
Although he has presided over his last CAB meeting, Mr. Applegate will continue working with the DOE at a national level.
"So that will help to ease me out of the habit," he said. "Think of it as the (anti-addiction) patch."
