Officials in Westchester and Rockland counties are expressing their concerns over Holtec International’s intentions to accelerate their planned radioactive water discharge into the Hudson River.
Despite ongoing discussions with the Indian Point Decommissioning Oversight Board (DOB), Holtec is brazenly moving forward with their plans to release upwards of 1 million gallons of contaminated nuclear waste water into the river in Buchanan, the site of the former Indian Point Energy Centre—several months earlier than originally proposed.
The DOB, an advisory board of the Department of Public Service, was established in 2021 to oversee the potential environmental, physical, and financial interests of communities impacted by the decommissioning efforts. The DOB had been working with Holtec, local lawmakers, and environmental groups to assess the fallout from releasing cancer-causing chemicals into the region’s primary waterway when they learned of Holtec’s plan to start dumping as early as May—instead of August as originally proposed.
Bad Faith and Corporate Arrogance
As opposition towards the plan continues to grow, law makers and county officials are urging Holtec, the company tasked with decommissioning the former nuclear power plant at Indian Point, to cease all dumping plans immediately.
Resolutions opposing Holtec’s plans have been passed by both Westchester and Rockland counties, with Senator Pete Harckham, D-Peekskill, and Assemblywoman Dana Levenberg, D-Ossining bringing forward legislation that calls for an outright ban of radioactive water discharge into any state waterways.
Although the bills are in committee at this time, Holtec has moved forward with their plans—seemingly unconcerned about the legality or ethics of their actions. Harckham expressed his dismay at Holtec’s move during active conversations with the DOB as, “an act of bad faith and corporate arrogance.” He continued, “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.”
Testing Radioactive Waste Not the Solution
When the bill opposing Holtec’s plans was announced in February, it was a reactionary step towards preventing actions that many people in the state opposed—and feared would result in lasting damage to the Hudson Valley and surrounding ecosystem.
“No person, corporation or government has the right to recklessly pollute New York State’s waters,” said Harckham. “The mere idea that this is being contemplated is troubling.”
Levenberg echoed his concerns about unregulated dumping.
“Too much is still unknown about the possible impacts of discharging radioactive waste into our waterways,” Levenberg stated. “Ultimately, the State of New York should have control over what is released into our waterways.”
As a concession, Holtec agreed to state testing requirements that would measure toxicity levels of waste water as it left the Indian Point site and entered the Hudson River—a move that officials argue does little to satisfy the concerns of residents in surrounding communities.
“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,” Harckham said. “Holtec continues to pursue a course of action with scant acknowledgment of our communities’ concerns about this critical issue.”
Officials Dismayed By Holtec’s Disrespect
While Levenberg is grateful to the DOB and local environmental group Riverkeeper for insisting that Holtec notify the community at least 30 days prior to any scheduled dumping, she questions Holtec’s timing—and lack of concern for surrounding communities.
“[It] 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,” Levenberg said. “My constituents are already overburdened with the negative environmental externalities left behind by industrial infrastructure.”
Meanwhile, Rockland County Executive Ed Day expressed his concern that Holtec was moving forward, “despite pending New York State legislation to ban the discharging of radioactive waste in the Hudson River, a petition with over 400,000 signatures, and multiple municipalities including the County of Rockland signing resolutions objecting to the plan.”
Westchester County Executive George Latimer shares Day’s sentiment and released a statement on April 5th, condemning Holtec’s intentions.
“The announcement by Holtec to expedite this plan, in the midst of ongoing discussions with State officials, community stakeholders and local municipalities, is an outrageous one. The impacted communities have far too much at stake for any treated water dumping to occur on a timeline quicker than what was expected. It is a mistake for Holtec to act before full public vetting of all options and acting without convincing residents and local governments why the other options have been overridden for consideration.”
Valid Permits and Regulatory Compliance
Patrick O’Brien, Holtec’s director of governmental affairs and communications, released a statement to local media outlining their compliance with DOB commitments, permits, and State and Federal regulations.
“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.”
State Sampling of Contaminated Water
In an April 4th notification, the DOB clarifies Holtec’s actions while outlining both their compliance and the State’s intention to independently test all samples of waste water released from the Indian Point Energy Center.
“The Decommissioning Oversight Board is aware that Holtec, the company decommissioning Indian Point, intends to conduct a partial dewatering of the Unit 2 spent fuel pool at or around May 4, 2023, consistent with Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) standards. While this planned discharge of approximately 45,000 gallons of treated water is allowed under existing permits and such discharges are conducted under the auspices of the federal government, the State plans to independently verify the contents of the water to be discharged by obtaining water samples and analyzing them in a state lab. […] The State sampling will be used to confirm the safety of the discharged water.”
Although Holtec advised the DOB that the discharge and contaminant levels would be in line with levels measured since the plant began operations in 1962, there has been recent controversy about hazardous materials being released into the water at the Indian Point site since 2005—possibly earlier. As noted by Riverkeeper:
“Since at least August 2005, radioactive toxins such as tritium and strontium-90 have been leaking from at least two spent fuel pools at Indian Point into the groundwater and the Hudson River.”
In his statement yesterday, County Executive Latimer called for Holtec to cease their plans, with an eye to the local community and surrounding Hudson Valley:
“I am urging Holtec and all parties involved to suspend their current plans, and to hold continued conversations on this decision and any subsequent actions that may be taken in order to ensure that residents of and visitors to our beautiful, scenic riverfronts are best protected.”
