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The federal government has agreed to pay nearly $14 million to settle a lawsuit over contaminated ground water at the former Fernald uranium processing site in southwest Ohio. The settlement is believed to be the largest of its kind against the federal government. Ohio EPA director Chris Korleski says he was an assistant attorney general in the '80s while the office was working on the Fernald case, and he says he's overjoyed.
Tom Schneider is the Fernald project manager with the Ohio EPA. He says the money will be used to restore the resources lost through uranium contamination. And he says there are signs that the site will return to a natural state.
The settlement ends 22 years of litigation between Ohio and the U.S. Department of Energy. The Energy Department finished a $4.4 billion cleanup of the site in 2006 that included removal of 1.5 million tons of waste. |
