By Dan Klepal
Enquirer staff writer

CROSBY TOWNSHIP - The state of Ohio and the federal government are sharply at odds over how much the feds will pay to manage the park left behind when the cleanup is finished at the old Fernald nuclear weapons plant.

The state and federal government have worked together for more than a decade on the $4.4 billion cleanup.

But a recent exchange between the U.S. Department of Justice and the Ohio Attorney General's Office reveals the two governments disagree over how much money is needed at the 1,000-acre site after the cleanup is finished in 2006.

The dispute is more than a bureaucratic squabble. The long-term plan for Fernald calls for it to become an undeveloped park with forests, wetlands, floodplains and open fields.

It is designed to be a place for wildlife to flourish and for people to visit, possibly with a center to teach people about the top-secret weapons work over four decades, the nuclear mess left behind and the massive cleanup project nearing completion.

State officials say the federal government promised two years ago to leave $5.4 million that could be used to maintain the park, monitor groundwater for contaminants and store records.

The Department of Energy has offered only $1 million for maintenance and is balking at the idea of building a museum or education center.

Tom Winston, chief of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency's southwest office, said the money is crucial to the success of the park. Winston also said the decision to keep some of the waste at Fernald saved the federal government millions of dollars in shipping and disposal fees, so it shouldn't balk at leaving behind cash now.

"Clearly, a facility that doesn't have some provisions for keeping it up and maintaining it doesn't have any staying power," Winston said.

"There will likely be a layering of stewards, including the federal government, a park organization will have responsibility for management activities, state and local governments involved in monitoring and record keeping. All of those activities will cost money and no one will want to do them for free."

The discussions are the result of a $206 million lawsuit the state filed against the federal government in 1986 for damage to natural resources. Many of these claims are being addressed in the cleanup at Fernald.

Now the federal government says that by restoring the natural resources - drinking water under the plant, soil that was contaminated with uranium and other hazardous chemicals, and removal of contaminated building debris - the rest of the state's claims for ongoing monitoring and museums are invalid.

"A natural resource claim for Fernald is minimal or non-existent," Timothy J. Kern, assistant attorney general in the U.S. Department of Justice's Environmental Enforcement Section, said in a June 3 letter to the state. He thinks $1 million offered by the energy department should pay for maintenance of the Fernald nature area for a "considerable period of time."

Lawyers for the state said in a June 15 letter to the Justice Department that Ohio's claim for natural resource damages is "legally and factually strong and, if litigated, would result in a very significant damage assessment."

"The damage (to natural resources) cannot be undone," said Dale Vitale and Timothy Kern, two lawyers with the Ohio Attorney General's Office, who responded to Enquirer questions via e-mail.

"It is analogous to a situation in which a person is severely injured in an accident. They may heal after the injury, and be able to function again at something close to normal, but they will never be the same. When that injury is caused by another, there should be some compensation.''

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Email dklepal@enquirer.com