Vermont Yankee Pollution
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The Vermont Senate has registered an historic vote not to extend the operating license of Entergy’s Vermont Yankee nuclear plant beyond 2012, the expiration date of its original 40-year license. The news related to Vermont Yankee has been deeply disturbing since a radioactive tritium leak was discovered in early January. This discovery has ballooned into an expanding field of groundwater contamination and Entergy Nuclear, Vermont Yankee’s owner, admits that even without conclusive testing tritium is undoubtedly leaching into the Connecticut River. At least one monitoring well has registered tritium levels at 2.2 million picocuries per liter of water, which is the second highest level ever reported nationally, close to levels that occur within the reactor itself, and 100 times the national drinking water standard. Yet, seven weeks later, the root source of the expanding tritium leach field flowing to the river has yet to be identified.
Entergy has repeatedly been shown to have obscured or withheld information from the public on the sources and extent of the leaking tritium. Their denial that underground piping at the plant even existed has now been shown to be patently false. Perhaps most disturbing of all is the recent revelations that there was a 2005 radioactive tritium leak in the vicinity of the current leak that was kept from the public. This cannot go on.
CRWC has been on the forefront of holding Entergy responsible for their impact on our water resources. Three years back, we took Entergy to court in an attempt to halt an expansion of the dumping of their thermal effluent into the river—a flushing of hot water directly into the Connecticut that endangers upstream migration of American shad, and impacts a host of native aquatic species in the river, as well as the development of juvenile shad. Entergy refuses to use its cooling towers–specifically designed to limit the plant’s heating impact on the river, because it lowers profit margins.
Here at CRWC we have called upon the NRC and federal regulators to take the prudent and overdue step of closing down the plant until the source and extent of the leaking tritium is located, and permanent remediation is achieved. Anything less puts communities and water resources at continual risk. Further, we have requested full public disclosure of all leaks and environmental impacts arising from operations at Vermont Yankee, past, present, and projected. As guardians of ground and surface water resources in the Connecticut River watershed, anything less is unacceptable.
At the root of this disturbing state of affairs is everyone’s right to know what is being released in the water we depend on for drinking, bathing, fishing, and swimming. Clean water is everyone’s right.
What you can do:
1. Stay informed. Keep abreast of the current situation at Vermont Yankee, both on-site, and at the legislative level. Vermont Department of Health updates.
2. Contribute to CRWC. We rely on member support to be able to respond quickly when pollution threaten our community resources. Without your support, we simply don’t have the resources we need to respond effectively. Please donate now.
Learn More
As news of the leaks came in CRWC’s Vermont-New Hampshire River Steward David Deen, began requesting detailed information and disclosure from Entergy, the NRC, and the Vermont Department of Health, who has been issuing updates on the Yankee situation. The Council’s purview includes the protection of the watershed’s drinking water, groundwater, and surface waters of basin rivers and streams.
Deen, of Westminster, VT, is also a state representative and chair of the VT House Committee on Fish, Wildlife, and Water Resources. The Committee has scheduled weekly meetings with Vermont health officials to stay abreast of developments. VT Health Commissioner Wendy Davis has been coming before Deen’s committee to answer the many questions and requests for information arising from the radioactive groundwater plume. Dr. William Irwin, Radiological Health Chief at the Vermont Department of Health has also appeared to take information requests.
An onsite, radiological sampling team has now been formed, including members of the Agency of Natural Resources, Agency of Agriculture, and the Dept. of Health. Once representatives pass security background checks they expect to be part of the public oversight as testing continues. Deen notes that the Dept. of Health Commissioner is closely monitoring developments for any immediate threats to public, and does have the authority to request a plant shutdown as part of exercising “prudent caution.”
Meanwhile, the Watershed Council has gone ahead with its own requests for specific information about the contaminated groundwater plume at Yankee. There are some 30 existing test wells at Yankee, with another 11 wells slated to be drilled. Queries and information requests from the Council have also included detailed geomorphological maps of the contours and known groundwater flow at the Yankee site, as well as requests for information on the private and public sector individuals chosen to work on the contamination issue, “We just want to be sure that the most highly-qualified, independent people are in there doing this public oversight work,” said David Deen.
The Vermont Department of Health's tritium information is updated frequently, including maps of test wells and results of water tests. Vermont Yankee also has online information about tritium, including regular updates on construction, testing and monitoring.
Thermal Pollution
Many aquatic species require cool water to thrive and reproduce. Recent research by Trout Unlimited suggests that the Connecticut River watershed will contain much of the Northeast’s remaining suitable habitat for sensitive species in an environment altered by climate change.
Thermal pollution -- hot water discharges like the one at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant -- pose a serious threat to river ecology and diminish its ability to provide refuge to coldwater species.
Vermont Yankee: appealing six degrees of degradation
CRWC is leading the legal intervention to halt Entergy Nuclear’s plans to profit by heating up the Connecticut River at its Vermont Yankee nuclear plant in Vernon--at the expense of spawning American shad and other species.
For well over 15 years the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant has been permitted to raise the River’s temperature up to 13 degrees during winter months and up to 5 degrees in the summer and fall. That heated plume is shown to extend at least 50 miles downstream to Holyoke, MA. In 2006, Entergy --Vermont Yankee’s owner-- was granted a variance to further increase river temperatures by a full degree at Vernon—during a time frame when spawning American shad and young are most vulnerable to warmed habitats. The new variance was scheduled to allow Entergy to profit further, by by-passing its own plant’s cooling towers and sending up to 543 million gallons of heated water--some of it at 105 degrees, into the river daily, beginning May 15—smack in the heart of the upstream spawning migration of temperature-sensitive American shad
CRWC intervened
There was a simple solution. Vermont Yankee could use its cooling towers to cool the water before returning it to the River. Their request came despite Entergy’s own records showing that American shad in the Vernon Pool had declined by 99% since the early 1990’s. Helped mightily by volunteers from the Vermont Law School, and leading a partnership including Trout Unlimited and the Citizen’s Awareness Network, CRWC went to court and won a stay of the new permit in August 2006, pending the outcome of our appeal. The case, requiring hundreds of hours of legal work and weeks of courtroom testimony, unfolded over the summer and early fall of 2007.
The Vermont Environmental Court deliberated over the winter and issued its decision in late May. The ruling triggered new temperature and calendar limits on thermal pollution at the site. The judge's 38-page decision denied Entergy the right to further increase the temperature of the Connecticut River until July 8th, as opposed to May 15th date Entergy originally requested.
There would have been ongoing temperature monitoring required at the Vernon fishway during migration season--setting an overall limit on river temperature increases there at 76.7 degrees through July 7th. Overall river temperatures at Station 3 downstream of the site will also be limited to a maximum of 85 degrees F., as per earlier conditions imposed by the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources. But, within that limit, the ruling allows Entergy to increase thermal pollution in the Connecticut River by yet another 1-degree overall between July 8 and October 15 annually. The Court’s ruling opened several avenues for an appeal on the broader issues in the case.
The case went all the way to the Vermont Supreme Court, which issued its decision in December 2009. The decision allows Vermont Yankee to raise the temperature of the Connecticut River during the summer by one additional degree Fahrenheit. This will allow the nuclear power plant to avoid the cost of running its cooling towers, at the expense of the ecological health of the river.
The Vermont Supreme Court’s decision did decide that the Vermont Water Quality Standards do apply to Vermont Yankee’s discharge. The company had tried to argue that it was exempt from the Vermont standards.
Next Step
The Vermont Agency of Natural Resources will now begin processing a pending application from Vermont Yankee for a complete permit renewal. In the renewal process, the Agency must consider the impacts of the full temperature increase of up to six degrees above the normal temperature of the river. CRWC will have the opportunity to appeal the permit on renewal if not satisfied that its terms are sufficient to protect the river.
CRWC remains determined to protect the Connecticut River from unnecessary thermal pollution. We're working hard to ensure that decisions are grounded in science. CRWC would like answers to such questions as how far the warmed water stretches downstream from the Vernon plant before additional temperature increases are allowed.
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VT/NH River Steward David Deen is coordinating work on the Vermont Yankee permit intervention. Contact David.
In the YouTube film below, CT River Steward David Deen explains VT Supreme Court case challenging Vermont's allowing LA-based Entergy Corp. to cool Vermont Yankee nuclear plant using river instead of its own cooling system, extinguishing fish and depressing tourism. The film was done by Lissa Weinmann, Senior Fellow at the World Policy Institute, for VermontEnergy.org in Brattleboro, VT.
Download to a short radio interview (MP3 1MB) with River Steward David Deen on WFCR-FM, the NPR member station in Amherst, MA, hosted by Bob Paquette, Senior News Producer, June 2, 2008.
Please make a donation to our Advocacy Campaign. Help us cool the river at Yankee.
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Photo credits (above): ©2006 Al Braden www.albradenphoto.com
Image Credits at Right - Illustrations: Bill Singleton; Photos: ©Al Braden www.albradenphoto.com, CRWC Staff.
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