Yesterday’s draft decision by state regulators to deny the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station a permit to discharge radioactive wastewater into Cape Cod Bay could be subject to a public hearing before the decision is finalized.
Seth Pickering, a deputy regional director at the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, said the agency may decide to hold a hearing.
Speaking last night at a meeting of the state advisory panel on Pilgrim — the Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel — he said DEP can choose to hold a public hearing if Pilgrim owner Holtec requests it or if DEP determines that a hearing would be in the public interest.
He also said the 30-day public comment period could be extended at the agency’s discretion in response to three factors: a request by Holtec, a request by other stakeholders, or a determination by DEP that allowing more time would be in the public interest.
Right now, the comment period is scheduled to end Aug. 28 at 5 p.m.
Pickering said he was unsure of the exact definition of “stakeholders” for this particular permit, but in his past experience, it typically includes people in the community who make public comments.
Holtec has proposed discharging up to 1.1 million gallons of radioactive water into Cape Cod Bay as part of the decommissioning of the Pilgrim nuclear plant, which was shut down in 2019.
The company applied for a modification to its water discharge permit to authorize release of water from multiple areas of the plant, including the spent fuel pool, torus, dryer-separator, and reactor cavity.
The basis for DEP’s denial is the Ocean Sanctuaries Act, which prohibits new discharges of waste into designated ocean sanctuaries. Cape Cod Bay has been a sanctuary since 1971.
Diane Turco of the Save Our Bay coalition called the decision “wonderful,” but she said she’s still looking for a guarantee that the decision will hold.
DEP has given no such guarantee.
