The Department of Energy’s Office of Legacy Management last month marked the 20th anniversary of final remediation of the Fernald Site, a former uranium processing facility 20 miles outside of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Over 250 people turned out for a Sept. 19 commemoration of the Cold War nuclear site that operated from 1951 until 1986 when cleanup started, according to an Oct. 5 news release from the Office of Legacy Management.
The 1,050-acre property in Fernald, Ohio is now the Fernald Preserve.
After spending years as a federal Superfund Site, the DOE Office of Environmental Management declared the property cleaned up in 2006 and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as well as the Ohio EPA both agreed, according to the news release. The cost of the cleanup was about $4.4 billion, according to a Fernald fact sheet.
After cleanup, DOE’s Environmental Management office transferred responsibility for the property to the Office of Legacy Management, for long-term monitoring, in 2008. Groundwater pump-and-treat operations continue at the site.
“An on-site disposal facility remains at the site containing approximately 3 million cubic yards of contaminated soil and debris,” according to Ohio EPA’s website on the Fernald Preserve.
