By Dan Klepal
The Cincinnati Enquirer

CROSBY TOWNSHIP - Officials with the Department of Energy Tuesday backed off a plan that would allow them to stop treating contaminated groundwater underneath the Fernald nuclear cleanup site, instead dumping it directly into the Great Miami River.

In a public meeting Tuesday to explain seven options for treating the groundwater, residents were angry and peppered officials with questions.

In June, energy officials commissioned a report for treating the groundwater.

A "talking points" document relating to the report said the government's "preferred alternative" is to tear down the treatment facility in 2005, begin dumping the tainted groundwater directly into the river, and remove all limits for the amount of uranium it is allowed to pump into the river from the site.

Currently the site can discharge a maximum of 600 pounds of uranium into the river annually.

Dumping the tainted groundwater would have saved about $85 million, but dumped approximately 8,000 pounds of uranium into the Great Miami.

Glenn Griffiths, the energy department's acting director at Fernald, said the government doesn't really have a preference on how to treat the groundwater.

"That was a poor choice of words," Griffiths said of the term "preferred alternative."

"It implies the decision is already made and that efforts have been made to support it," he said. "All the alternatives are exactly equal at this point."

The seven options range from continuing the current treatment method to replacing the treatment plant with a less expensive mobile system or demolishing the on-site plant in 2011 so less uranium would be dumped into the river.

Griffiths said a lengthy public process will precede any decision made on the issue.

That was good news to the approximately 50 residents who came to Tuesday's meeting.

Lisa Crawford, a resident who lives near the plant and is head of the Fernald Residents for Environmental Safety and Health (FRESH), said her organization would sue if the government tries to change the deal now.

"We agreed to what we agreed to," Crawford said. "You can't stop in the middle of the road and just say `We're not going to do this anymore.' "

A 179-acre plume of cancer-causing uranium sits in the groundwater underneath Fernald.

The energy department is required to clean that contamination so that it meets drinking water standards.

Currently, a world-class treatment facility treats that water before it is re-injected into the ground or pumped out to the river.

E-mail dklepal@enquirer.com