Riverkeeper: Make Indian Point compliant
Alex Matthiessen, president of Tarrytown-based Riverkeeper, says the nonprofit”™s position on Indian Point”™s relicensing is “not anti-progress, anti-business or anti-development … we just think things can be done differently and in a way that is healthier for the planet and the people living on it.”
That said, Matthiessen takes exception to Entergy”™s assertion that cooling towers would take years to build and the company would run into problems with the village of Buchanan in getting the necessary zoning changes.
“Essentially, Indian Point has been violating the Clean Water Act since 1972,” Matthiessen said. Entergy bought Indian Point in approximately 2000 and started its relicensing application in 2007. “Now, it”™s time for the company to comply with the law.”
Entergy filed for a license renewal two years ago and asked for its operations to be extended for 20 years. Even if the Nuclear Regulatory Commission thinks it has 20 years of life left in it, the state”™s Department of Environmental Conservation ruled Indian Point violates the federal Clean Water Act and has refused to issue permits for Units 2 and 3. Unit 1 went off line in the early 1970s.
“The plant takes in 2.5 billion gallons of water a day and flushes it out at much higher temperatures than it takes it in. …the result of that intake is 1 billion fish a year die in the process of being sucked through the intake,” Matthiessen said. “The heated water that it discharges is also damaging the river”™s ecosystem.”
Cooling towers would reduce its water usage by 97 percent, he said, and “while wedge-wire technology sounds like a good idea, there is no conclusive evidence anywhere this new and untested technology is safer or more effective. Indian Point will still take in as much water as it is now and send it out at higher temperatures, which impact fish and their eggs. For Entergy, it is a much less costly way to stop killing fish than building cooling towers, but it is not going to stop the damage being done to the river or put a plug on the plant”™s current water needs without the cooling towers.” Matthiessen said his organization is not alone in opposing Indian Point. Several environmental groups and politicians, including Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo, have spoken out against its relicensing, he said.
While an administrative judge considers Entergy”™s request to override the state DEC, Buchanan”™s new mayor, Sean Murray, says if any lawsuits are to be filed, they will not be by the village against the utility.
“If anything, Entergy will sue us if our zoning board turns down its request,” said Murray, who was formerly a village trustee and was on the planning board. “It is our major employer and source of ratable, so it is in the village”™s best interest for it to continue operating. If cooling towers are the only way the state and federal government will let Entergy continue to remain operational, we will have a public hearing and let the people come out to hear what”™s being proposed and what they have to say about it.”
Murray said previous administrations had been opposed to the cooling towers, “but if they are, in fact, the only way Indian Point is going to be able to continue operating, we”™re certainly not going to shut the door. We understand the concerns about the Algonquin gas line and other issues that will have to be mitigated if the cooling towers must be built. Again, I will emphasize we are not looking to see our village”™s major employer disappear.”