By Al Salvato
Post staff reporter
12/27/88

Growing environmental fears over the Fernald uranium processing 
plant have prompted the suspension of activities at Ft. Scott 
Camp next summer.The Archdiocese of Cincinnati announced today 
that its 253-acre camp, which is two miles from the Crosby 
Township plant, will be closed next summer because many children 
were expected to avoid the camp because of "the plant's uncertain 
future."
This is the second Crosby township camp in three months to 
suspend operations because of the Feed Materials Production 
Center.
In October, The Great Rivers Girl Scout Council suspended 
activities at Camp Ross, a 305-acre site two miles from the 
plant, because of concerns about land and groundwater 
contamination.
For months, the processing plant has been under Intense scrutiny 
after the U.S. Department of Energy, the plant's owner, admitted 
it had ignored safety and environmental concerns for decades.
The furor over the plant also has raged because residents, 
environmentalists and political leaders say the plant needs a $1 
billion to $1.5 billion cleanup of toxic compounds stockpiled at 
the site.  The plan processes radioactive materials for weapons 
and nuclear plants.
"The plant's future is raising concerns for a lot of people," 
said Father Leonard Wenke, the archdiocese's director of the 
Office of Youth Ministry, which oversees Ft. Scott Camp.
"While we have no evidence of heal risk, the future of the plan 
is too uncertain for us to take any other course at this time," 
he said.
Each year the camp serves about 2,000 children, ages 7 to 15, and 
has served about 150,000 since it opened as the first Catholic 
camp in the United States in 1922.
Wenke said the archdioceses decision' to suspend Ft.  Scott's 190 
n stemmed from, recommendations of a long-range planning 
committees The committee's recommendation to close Ft. Scott 
hinged principally on early registration figures that showed 
"numbers were about half what they normally are."
"With that type of decline, we cannot support the type of program 
we want to provide, Wenke said.
An advisory board of the archdiocese endorsed the recommendation 
and Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk approved it last week.
The committee's "Investigations have not revealed any evidence to 
suggest that campers or staff have been exposed to any health 
risk," Wenke said.
"Since 1982, the soil and water at Ft. Scott have been regularly 
tested.  Each test result has been within accepted safety 
standards," Wenke said.
The archdiocese three years ago closed a well containing massive 
amounts of formaldehyde after an Inspection by the Ohio 
Environmental Protection Agency.  Camp officials said then that a 
custodian used the well water but not campers.
The EPA concluded that the contamination was coming from a former 
gravel pit that allegedly was used as an illegal dumping site for 
industrial wastes 20 years ago.
Wenke said the planning committee will continue its investigation 
and decide later when to resume camp operations.