BY RACHEL MELCER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
CROSBY TOWNSHIP - Scientists who must restore life to the former Fernald uranium refinery site face a daunting task.
It's easy for Department of Energy (DOE) officials to flash conceptual drawings and charts and reports.
It's something else to re-create woods, prairies and wetlands on the 1,050 acres during the coming decade.
"Approving a plan is just the tip of the iceberg. All the thousands of problems we're going to run into as we implement it, those are going to be the issues we'll be dealing with," said Kathleen Nickel, a DOE environmental scientist.
So far, only small-scale ecological studies and tentative plantings have begun.
During almost five decades of construction, production and cleanup, hills were leveled, huge pits dug, and layers of contaminated topsoil stripped away.
Little of what remains resembles nature.
Yet the DOE will be committed to spending $13.8 million on restoration when the final land use plan is approved in coming weeks.
That plan should settle a 1986 lawsuit filed by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, under which the DOE must restore 875 acres of natural habitat or face hefty fines.
Clean Water Act regulations require the DOE to create 15 acres of wetlands to make up for 10 acres that were destroyed.
So with help from Miami University and the University of Dayton, the DOE is beginning to figure out how to meet those goals.
At the eastern edge of the site, UD instructor Don Geiger is planting various native prairie grasses. He is applying mulch and fertilizer to some plants and exploring whether others will thrive on their own in barren, post-cleanup Fernald ground.
"We have seen sites where prairies are doing very well on very poor soils, but we've never tried to plant it on our site," said Eric Woods, natural resources manager for cleanup contractor Fluor Daniel Fernald. "We're looking for a way to optimize growth and make sure that we'll have a thriving prairie in a short period of time."
Trees are the specialty of Carolyn Keiffer, assistant botany professor at Miami's Middletown campus. She and undergraduates will spend the next five years studying which types, combinations and densities grow best at Fernald.
The site also could be a proving ground for a new American chestnut, bred to replace trees all but wiped out by disease. Saplings growing in a greenhouse soon will be planted at Fernald and monitored for 30 years before they can be bred for general use.
The biggest challenge will be wetland restoration, specialists say. They must create a self-sustaining system: too much stagnant water could breed excessive mosquitoes; too little will not sustain some plants.
"We're not going to just go in, dig holes and fill them with water. We're going in a little more educated than that," the DOE's Ms. Nickel said.
Still, DOE officials are asking the Citizens Advisory Board and OEPA just how far they must go. If a wetland or habitat doesn't prosper, DOE wants to know that it can walk away.
"Right now, DOE is positioning themselves so that if their restoration efforts fail, they have limited liability. We need some reassurance," Doug Sarno, technical aide to the citizen board's on-site committee, said recently.
The board will draft a letter to DOE with its concerns and may form a new committee to deal with implementing the site restoration plan.
Ms. Nickel said DOE might turn to park district workers and naturalists for local expertise. Some other agency probably will be tapped for long-term management when the cleanup ends.
Some native grasses and trees would sprout at Fernald without human intervention - but DOE is obligated to restore the best quality environment possible.
"The restoration isn't really an issue of pass or fail. There's no question that we can get stuff to grow out there," Fluor Daniel's Mr. Woods said. "We need to do it the smartest way that we can, so that we only have to do it once . . . and it will be the best system that it can be."
