© 2024
Local NPR for the Cape, Coast & Islands 90.1 91.1 94.3
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Environmental group's lawyers reveal argument against water discharge from Pilgrim Nuclear

Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station
Holtec International
Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station

Lawyers for the Association to Preserve Cape Cod are making a detailed legal argument to the state that discharge of radioactive water from the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station is illegal, regardless of whether the water is contaminated.

They say the state's Ocean Sanctuaries Act prohibits new discharges of industrial waste into Cape Cod Bay, with narrow exceptions that don’t apply to Pilgrim.

Andrew Gottlieb, executive director of the Association to Preserve Cape Cod, revealed the 10-page legal analysis Monday.

“We think a plain reading of the law makes it clear that the proposed discharge of industrial wastewater to Cape Cod Bay by Holtec is prohibited by state statute that's been in existence since 1971,” he said.

The lawyers met last week with members of Gov. Maura Healey’s administration and the office of Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, after Holtec applied for a permit modification that could allow discharge of water into Cape Cod Bay.

They sent the legal analysis in February to Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Rebecca Tepper and Lisa Berry Engler, director of the Office of Coastal Zone Management, or CZM. CZM, part of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, implements ocean sanctuary regulations.

Gottlieb said the analysis by law firm Sugarman Rogers gives the state a legal basis on which to deny Holtec’s application.

“We're calling upon them to use this as the basis to swiftly deny the application of Holtec for the discharge and allow all of us concerned with the decommissioning of the plant to stop being distracted by this ill-conceived idea,” he said.

The water issue has been a distraction from work needed to fully close out the Pilgrim site and return the land in Plymouth to productive use, he said.

Holtec has proposed to discharge about a million gallons of radioactive water as part of the decommissioning of Pilgrim.

Gottlieb said state officials have not made any promises that they will deny the permit, but he believes the law is clear.

“They have not made any assurances one way or the other,” he said. “But we think, frankly, that the arguments made in the letter, based on the law, are pretty clear and irrefutable.”

He said the state could declare immediately that Pilgrim is ineligible for the permit, rather than spend a year or more evaluating the application.

Holtec spokesman Patrick O’Brien said the company looks forward to the permitting process.

He declined to comment on any possible litigation.

Jennette Barnes is a reporter and producer. Named a Master Reporter by the New England Society of News Editors, she brings more than 20 years of news experience to CAI.