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Watershed Council seeks VY intervener status
Mar 12, 2010 (Brattleboro Reformer - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
FRIDAY MARCH 12, 2010
Brattleboro -- The Connecticut River Watershed Council asked the Vermont Public Service Board on Wednesday to grant it intervener status in the Vermont Yankee certificate of public good hearings now before the board.
In February, the watershed council called for the shutdown of the nuclear power plant in Vernon until a leak of tritiated water is "fully verified, halted and remediated."
According to the request filed by Jon Groveman on behalf of the CRWC, "(it) has a substantial interest intervening in these Dockets to address the potential contamination of the Connecticut River from the leak of radionuclides, radioactive materials, and potentially, other non-radioactive materials into the environment from Vermont Yankee."
Groveman is the Water Program and Legal Counsel for the Vermont Natural Resources Council, which filed for its own intervener status request with the Vermont PSB on Feb. 9.
Because the watershed council is "a leader in advocating for the protection of the Connecticut River since 1952," it should be granted intervener status, he wrote.
Members of the CRWC and the general public "have an absolute right to feel safe when it comes to groundwater, drinking water and what's flowing into the Connecticut River," stated CRWC Executive Director Chelsea Gwyther, in a press release. "Entergy has not proven a very friendly neighbor to the river."
The CRWC challenged Entergy, which owns and operates Yankee,
in the Vermont Environmental Court after Entergy applied for a variance to increase the temperature of heated water the plant discharges directly into the Connecticut River.
CRWC argued that the water, which is used to cool steam produced by the reactor, harms migratory American shad and the river's aquatic habitats.
The cooling water circulates through thousands of pipes, like a radiator in a motor vehicle, but does not come into contact with radioactive materials.
During hearings before the Public Service Board last year, Entergy representatives testified that pipes suspected of being the source of a leak of tritiated water at Yankee did not exist, stated the press release.
"It's the job of the Watershed Council to protect the river," stated Gwyther. "We expect the same of Entergy. But, after two months, Entergy has still not been able to definitively pinpoint all the sources, or the full extent of the expanding field of tritium moving in the groundwater."
Gwyther stated the PSB should order Entergy to cease operations at the plant until it can categorically be determined that plant can operate without threatening the groundwater and the Connecticut River.
Bob Audette can be reached at raudette@reformer.com, or at 802-254-2311, ext. 273.
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http://www.reformer.com. Copyright (c) 2010, Brattleboro Reformer, Vt.
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