Lawmakers, Counties Oppose Radioactive Discharge From Indian Point

WESTCHESTER COUNTY, NY — Opposition is mounting to a plan to dump 1 million gallons of radioactive wastewater into the Hudson River.

Holtec International, the company that is decommissioning the Indian Point Nuclear Plant, had originally planned to dump the wastewater into the river in August, but has now scheduled it for May.

Both Westchester and Rockland counties have passed resolutions opposing Holtec’s plan.

Senator Pete Harckham, D-Peekskill, and Assemblywoman Dana Levenberg, D-Ossining, have proposed legislation in Albany that would ban the release of radioactive waste into any waters in the state, including the Hudson River. The bills are currently in committee.

Harckham called the announcement of the early release while in the middle of conversations with Holtec “an act of bad faith and corporate arrogance.”

“It is no wonder that the communities along the river and even beyond continue to be outraged by Holtec’s handling of Indian Point’s decommissioning,” he said.

Harckham said Holtec’s agreeing to allow the state to test the wastewater as it travels to the Hudson is a small concession gained by state agencies but is not a solution to the problem.

“The point is that the [Decommmissioning Oversight Board], residents and business owners should not be put into a ‘last to know’ position when it comes to dumping radioactive wastewater into the Hudson River,” he said.

“Holtec continues to pursue a course of action with scant acknowledgment of our communities’ concerns about this critical issue,” Harckham said.

Levenberg said she was grateful to the Decommissioning Oversight Board and Riverkeeper for insisting that Holtec give the community 30 days notice before any planned discharge into the river.

“Holtec’s timing shows profound disrespect for our community, particularly as we are approaching the season when so many are turning to the river for fishing, swimming, boating and so much more,” she said.

“My constituents are already overburdened with the negative environmental externalities left behind by industrial infrastructure,” Levenberg said, “and we should not be treated like pawns in this process.”

In response to a request by Patch for a comment, Patrick O’Brien, Holtec’s director of governmental affairs and communications, sent the following statement:

“As committed to in the last DOB meeting in February by the Site Vice President we made a 30-day notification to the DOB of our intent discharge treated water from the spent fuel pool according to our valid permit and within all safe limits established by the State and Federal government.

The treated water is monitored and sampled to ensure that it meets regulatory requirements before it is released and will be a small fraction of the 3 millirem total annual limit imposed by the NRC. Following the filtering process, releases are scheduled to be completed in three batches of 18,000 gallons each and will be limited to 45,000 gallons in total for this exercise.

The processing and treatment of this water is being done to commence needed cleaning work in the pool ahead of the spent fuel pool dewatering in the August/September timeframe mentioned.

Following this release, there will be approximately 265,000 gallons remaining in the Unit 2 Spent Fuel Pool. Currently, we plan to begin the total dewatering process of the Unit 2 Spent Fuel Pool in the August/September time frame.”