A long-awaited appeal hearing on the proposed discharge of radioactive water from the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station starts Thursday in Boston.
The owner of Pilgrim, Holtec International, is appealing a decision last summer by the Department of Environmental Protection to block the release of reactor-system water into Cape Cod Bay. The department denied Holtec a modified permit, saying the plan was illegal under the state's Ocean Sanctuaries Act.
The hearing is scheduled to last four days — June 12, 13, 17, and 18 — before a presiding officer in the department’s Office of Appeals and Dispute Resolution.
Documents and procedures in the appeal are similar to a court case. Each side will have a chance to cross-examine witnesses who submitted written testimony.
Two groups of residents and organizations — one led by the Association to Preserve Cape Cod, and one led by James Lampert of Duxbury — have been given standing to participate in the case, as have the towns of Plymouth and Barnstable.
“This really isn't a hard case,” said Andrew Gottlieb, executive director of the Association to Preserve Cape Cod. “The law says you can't dump new wastewater discharges into the ocean — or a protected sanctuary. That's what we're talking about here.”
Major issues to be decided in the appeal include whether releasing the water inside Pilgrim would constitute a prohibited discharge of industrial waste under the Ocean Sanctuaries Act, whether the discharge would be considered new or existing, and whether the water is “associated” with power generation now that the plant is no longer operating.
The appeal will also likely address whether federal law on this matter preempts the state.
Holtec spokesman Patrick O’Brien has previously argued that the water discharge is not new, and is therefore legal, because Pilgrim routinely released water while it was operating.
The company contends that release of water into Cape Cod Bay was approved prior to the bay's designation as an Ocean Sanctuary.
Gottlieb said his group is participating in the state appeal to establish a record of facts for the court case that is likely to follow.
“We wanted to make sure that through our participation, the record upon which the court will rely for judicial review is as complete and robust as possible, so that the federal court and the state court also see that DEP got it right,” he said.
Holtec has said the water would be treated prior to discharge, and that levels of radiation in the water would be comparable to past water releases.
