Jason Groenewold, executive director of the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah, will leave the organization he helped build over the past eight years later this month to become a student of law and business. Vanessa Pierce, HEAL's Utah program director, has been chosen to become the environmental organization's new leader.

“There is still more work to be done,” said Groenewold, “but I know with the continued support and involvement of our members and the broader public, we can prevent Utah from serving as the nation's nuclear and toxic waste dumping ground.”

HEAL has grown to an organization with more than 600 dues-paying members and 1,000 supporters. Its budget of $200,000 supports three full-time staff members.

Groenewold helped lead the fight in 2003 to block the federal government from using a legal loophole to send trainloads of highly contaminated radioactive waste from the Fernald, Ohio, and Niagara Falls, N.Y., cleanups to the former Envirocare of Utah landfill in Tooele County. He also led efforts last year to persuade the state Legislature to ban the hotter “B&C” waste from Utah.

His media sound bites could be stingingly sharp. But, in his public appearances, Groenewold was disarmingly polite. He often became a lightening rod for criticism against environmentalists and their cause.

Groenewold said he hopes to build on his experience at HEAL and work someday on sustainable development. He said he feels confident Pierce will lead HEAL forward.

“I wish him the best,” said Sue Martin, a spokeswoman for a consortium of companies behind a nuclear waste storage site proposed for the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation who frequently found herself opposite of Groenewold in debates.

Government watchdog Claire Geddes began working with Groenewold a couple of years ago. She praised his integrity and talent but noted that he has left the organization in good hands.

“He's left a legacy that has grown the organization and brought in good people,” she said.

fahys@sltrib.com