PEEKSKILL – Holtec, the company that bought the defunct Indian Point nuclear power plant in Buchanan with the goal of dismantling it, has canceled its plans to dump treated radioactive wastewater into the Hudson River next month.
But that is not enough for county executives up and down the river. They want Holtec to come up with other alternatives to releasing the chemicals into the river. The executives banded together in Peekskill on Monday to express their united front.
Rockland’s Ed Day advised everyone not to let their guard down. “In the threat of stern letters and strict fines from the EPA Holtec is also looking to dump 1.1 million of wastewater from the Pilgrim nuclear power plant into Cape Cod Bay. Let me say this – if Holtec is willing to risk an entire fishing industry clearly they will not blink an eye at dumping radioactive waste into our Hudson River here,” he said.
Putnam Executive Kevin Byrne, a supporter of nuclear power, said Holtec must explore alternatives. “There are absolutely other alternative solutions and we need to be very clear in our resolve and say under no circumstances will any of our local officials support any effort to dump wastewater into our beautiful Hudson River,” he said.
Ulster Executive Jen Metzger said the river has been polluted for decades and enough is enough. “We have been fighting corporate polluters for too many decades,” she said. “Some 60 years later we are still fighting to hold GE accountable for repairing the harm from PCB. We have long since rejected the notion that this vital and irreplaceable resource can be a dumping ground for hazardous waste of any kind.”
Westchester Executive George Latimer wants more proof before supporting any discharge into the river. “I’m not convinced of the science until you convince me. I have the responsibility for my one million people. You have the responsibility for your 200,000 people, your 350,000, 400,000 people, your 100,000 people – we’re tasked with worrying about their health and we’re not going to accept someone saying, ‘this is what we have done; we’re going to do it,’ We want to see details, explain over a period of time, with independent scrutiny of that information. We want to see testing,” he said.
Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus also opposes the dumping of nuclear wastewater saying with striped bass starting to run up the river, he certainly would not eat fish from the Hudson.
