Cape Cod Salties hold forum on Holtec plan to dump radioactive water into Cape Cod Bay
The Cape Cod Salties Sportsfishing Club will hold a forum in January about Holtec International's plan to dump water containing radionuclides from the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth into Cape Cod Bay.
The featured speaker will be Diane Turco of Harwich, director of Cape Downwinders, a nuclear watchdog and advocacy group that has monitored the plant, and now its decommissioning, for decades.
The forum — to which the public is invited — is meant to educate Cape Codders about "the legalities, practicalities and risks" of Holtec's plan "and what would happen if a corporation dumps this water into Cape Cod Bay," said Jonathan Ungerland, president of the 300-member Cape Cod Salties Club.
"We want to hear what she (Turco) has to say and be informed about angles and risks around this issue," Ungerland said, adding that the club wants to provide a space for objective conversation about the issue.
The forum will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 11 at the Yarmouth Senior Center in West Yarmouth.
Over the past year, Turco and many community leaders, state and federal legislators and activists have been raising awareness of Holtec's plans for decommissioning the Pilgrim power plant, which includes discharging into Cape Cod Bay about one million gallons of water used to cool the reactor and spent fuel rods when the plant was in operation.
The Cape Cod Salties' guiding principles include the enjoyment of saltwater fisheries, stewardship of the environment and education of the community, Ungerland said. This issue hits all three of those principles, he said
In November, Holtec officials said they plan to pursue a modification to its permits to allow it to discharge up to 1.1 million gallons of wastewater remaining at the plant. Holtec says the water, even in its untreated state, is of equal or better quality than Plymouth’s drinking water.
“That’s the path we’ve been given, and that’s the path we are going to pursue,” Holtec Senior Compliance Manager David Noyes said during the Nov. 28 Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel in Plymouth.
In an early November letter U.S. Sens. Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren and U.S. Rep. William Keating of Massachusetts, urged Holtec to commit to not dumping water from Pilgrim into the bay. And Gov.-Elect, and current Attorney General, Maura Healey has historically taken a strong stance against the discharge of treated water from the power station into Cape Cod Bay.
Other options for disposing of the tainted water are evaporation on site, trucking the water to a disposal site or storing the water on the site of the decommissioned nuclear plant.
Holtec’s critics said during the Nov. 28 meeting that the company committed to following all state and federal environmental laws, including the Clean Water Act and the state’s Ocean Sanctuaries Act, as part of its agreement with the state.
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The debate hinges on whether that includes radioactive materials, which are generally under the purview of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
In a June letter to Holtec, the EPA disputed the company's claims it could discharge water under its current National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit.
It said Holtec would need to apply for a new or modified permit, which would include water sampling results from the remaining effluent, other permits, reviews and a public comment period before it could be reviewed.
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If you go:
What: Forum about Holtec International's plan to dump radioactive water into Cape Cod Bay
When: 6:30 p.m. Jan. 11
Where: Yarmouth Senior Center, 538 Forest Road, West Yarmouth
Who: Cape Cod Salties Sportsfishing Club is hosting the forum. The public is invited to attend.
This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Cape Cod Salties Sportsfishing holds forum on Holtec plan to dump water
