BUCHANAN – Most of the 600 gallons of petroleum that leaked from
a heat exchanger at the Indian Point nuclear power plant on Friday has
been contained within the plant and only a small portion reached the discharge
canal, Governor Andrew Cuomo said Sunday after touring the Hudson River
by boat.
Entergy spokesman Jerry Nappi said the problem was discovered on Friday
when “staff identified an oil sheen in the plant’s discharge
canal” on Friday morning. It did not detect any sheening in the
river, he said.
State Environmental Conservation Department officials performed another
inspection on Saturday and found no oil or sheen on the river or the canal
and Cuomo said after Sunday’s inspection no additional petroleum
is expected to reach the discharge canal.
DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos suggested the absorbent booms placed in
the discharge to canal to absorb the petroleum sheen may not have been
effective.
“The booms are actually placed at the very far end of the canal
system downstream from the discharge point into the Hudson River so that
raises a significant question of if oil got into the water at any rate,
it would have gotten into the canal because of the location of the booms.
One of the booms is actually ripped off as well,” Seggos said.
Nappi, meanwhile, said the DEC has been on-site many times since they
were notified on Friday morning “and we have not gotten any negative
feedback about our boom placement prior to now.”
The oil that leaked lubricates plant equipment and is not radioactive;
the plant continues to run safely and there is no impact on workers or
public health or safety, Nappi said.
