Vermont Yankee will be allowed to continue to leak and pollute.  On March 10, 2010, the Vermont Public Service Board held an initial hearing on CLF’s request to close the plant until the leaks are repaired.  

Unfortunately, Yankee will continue to operate at least until it shuts down for refueling in late April.  I have little doubt that when it does shut down for refueling, the leaks will be found and repaired.  The sad part is that since early January, Vermont Yankee has been allowed to continue to operate with ongoing leaks of radioactive waste from pipes Yankee told regulators never even existed.  The leaks and the lies should stop.  Entergy should not get a free pass to pollute.

If my car is leaking oil, I stop the car and fix the leak.  We should expect the same from an operator of a nuclear power plant.

Entergy — the owner of Vermont Yankee — claimed yesterday it should not be required to give regulators accurate information on the leaks, the impacts of the leaks and its efforts to stop them.  They are busy trying to fix the leaks and the requested reporting apparently would be some sort of distraction.  CLF responded that a company as large as Entergy should be able to “walk and chew gum at the same time.”  If Entergy has time to make daily public announcements about what is going on, why can’t they make those statements under oath?  And if they can’t, what are they hiding?

Join CLF in asking the VT Public Service Board, the NRC and the VT health Department to shut Vermont Yankee down until the leaks are repaired.

Learn more about CLF VT Yankee Advocacy

The current crumbling fleet of nuclear power plants demonstrate how the current version of nuclear power is not a sane and safe climate solution.  No facility shows this more clearly than the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.

Responding to CLF’s requests, the Vermont Public Service Board (PSB) issued an order opening an investigation into whether Vermont Yankee should be shut down immediately, in light of continuing radiation leaks at the facility. The investigation will also consider whether Entergy’s license to operate the plant should be revoked or any penalties should be imposed for violations of Vermont law. (See the Order at pg. 9). A prehearing conference is scheduled for March 10, 2010 at the Public Service Board in Montpelier.

This news follows Wednesday’s historic decision by the Vermont State Senate not to extend the plant’s license beyond 2012. As they reaffirmed on page 6 of the order the VT PSB has the authority to take action – including a shut down – when a nuclear power facility in its jurisdiction is improperly managed.

CLF Senior Attorney Sandra Levine said it best:  “Wednesday’s Senate vote was a positive step toward putting this aging facility out of its misery, but it did not address the immediate problem: Vermont Yankee is continuing to leak radiation with impunity. We commend the Public Service Board for stepping up to hold Vermont Yankee accountable for its actions. The plant is not being managed responsibly. It should be shut down.”

1. Stop the Leaks

The continuing leaks of radiation at Vermont Yankee must stop. It is outrageous that our regulators are refusing to act.  Nearly a month ago, CLF called on the Public Service Board to shut down Yankee until the leaks stop. It only makes sense. You can read our filings here.

2. Shut down now

Any other business spewing dangerous radioactive waste into our water and ground would be shut down in a minute. The Health Department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are refusing to act. It seems regulators would rather see New England have another superfund site than close down the leaky, rust-bucket that is Vermont Yankee.

3. Regulatory Collapse

Our financial markets collapsed because regulators were asleep at the switch and refused to act. Let’s not make the same mistake with our nuclear industry where the consequences of poor oversight are far more dire.

4. New Nuke Plants Unwise

New nuclear plants are expensive, dirty and unwise. Without responsible regulation in place, how can we even think about building new plants? We don’t have anywhere to store the waste that will be dangerous for thousands of years. Taxpayers shouldn’t be footing the bill for more dirty and expensive power – especially when the plants we have are leaving a dirty and expensive legacy for our children.

Join CLF in calling for responsible regulation of nuclear power. No more leaks. No more lies. No more lax oversight.

Be sure to read CLF’s article Vermont Yankee, The Costs of Nuclear, in the Summer 2009 edition of Conservation Matters.  To get involved or receive more information please contact the author of this post–Sandra Levine, CLF Senior Attorney at slevine@clf.org.

Much like a joy-riding ATVer testing the power of his off-road machine, the leadership of Vermont’s Natural Resources agency seems hell-bent on riding roughshod over any obstacle in the way of its proposal to open state-owned forests, parks, and wildlife areas to recreational ATV trails.

As I wrote earlier on this blog, the agency leadership revved its engines and ran right over opposition from concerned members of the public who commented on the rule–by the agency’s own estimate, commenters opposed the proposal by a ratio of 4-to-1.  The professional objections of its own scientists, game wardens, and on-the-ground land managers didn’t slow agency leaders down either.  In public documents obtained by CLF and reported in the press, career Agency employees expressed concerns about the damage to public and private property caused by illegal ATV use that ANR already struggles to control with existing resources.  They also worried about the strain that managing the numerous public safety and environmental impacts surrounding ATV trails would place on an understaffed agency reeling from more job cuts.  

Vermont’s legislative process and the rule of law is the last obstacle in the way of ANR’s ATV proposal.  With your help, this could be the obstacle that stops this irresponsible proposal in its tracks.

Prior to a hearing of the legislative committee that serves as an important check against arbitrary and illegal power-grabs by the political appointees who run state agencies, news reports indicated that a bi-partisan majority of the committee’s legislators are prepared to formally object to the Agency’s proposal.  At the hearing, legislators listened politely as the agency’s top lawyer and its Secretary essentially claimed that the Secretary has inherent authority to allow state lands to be used however he sees fit and further that a single ambiguous sentence in a 1983 motor vehicle law specifically grants the Secretary unfettered discretion to write rules opening state lands to ATVs.  But the legislators had done their homework and had an answer for the agency’s questionable legal analysis. 

Representative Richard Marek (D-Newfane) proposed that the committee adopt a written objection to the rule that debunks the Agency’s claims demonstrating how it is contrary to the legislature’s intent and beyond the authority the legislature has granted to the agency.  You can read the committee’s proposed objection on CLF’s web site.  In keeping with the narrow focus of the committee, the proposed objection articulates reasons why the rule is an affront to good government process and the rule of law.  It doesn’t mention the many policy reasons why the ATV proposal is deeply flawed because those questions are best left to the full legislature.  It’s pretty clear that is where this issue may be headed come January.  A defiant agency leadership seems poised to adopt the rule even if the committee formally votes to object at its next meeting on December 15.

This sets the agency and the full legislature on a potential collision course and may also land the agency in court.  Though ANR can adopt the rule over the objection of the rules committee, the legislature could completely repeal the rule by passing a new law.  State law also makes it much easier for groups like CLF to challenge illegal rules when an agency moves forward in spite of a legislative objection. 

Here are three ways you can help protect Vermont forests, parks, and wildlife areas from being transformed into motorized theme parks by ANR:

1. Call your legislator and voice your opposition.  This is especially important if your legislator is on the administrative rules committee scheduled to vote on December 15.
2. Write a letter to the editor of your local paper expressing your opposition.
3. Make a donation to CLF so that we can continue our efforts to protect state lands in the legislature and, if need be, in court.

With the Red Sox in the playoffs yet again, I know I am not alone in the hope that we’ll be hearing a lot of the Standell’s 1966 tribute to Boston and the Charles River–”Dirty Water”–throughout the month of October as the Sox go for their third World Series trophy of the young century.

As much fun as it is to sing this song in the afterglow of a Sox victory, it’s sad that the label “dirty water” still fits the Charles River and so many other dirty waters across New England more than 40 years after the song came out and more than thirty-five years after the passage of the Clean Water Act.  One of the biggest problems now–blue-green algae blooms or scums (like the one on the Charles pictured below).  Beyond just making waters look and smell disgusting, swimming in water during or shortly after one of these blooms can cause skin rashes and ingesting water tainted with some blue-greens can cause unpleasant gastrointestinal problems.

Of all the reasons why we don’t really love that dirty water, scientists working on a cutting edge new theory may have identified a scary new one: a potential link between ingestion of toxins produced by blue-green algae and debilitating brain diseases like ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s.

An article in the Spring 2009 UNH magazine details the work of two New England scientists whose research is exploring the connection between clusters of ALS sufferers–i.e., areas where the incidence of disease is abnormally higher than in the general populations–and lakes where blue-green algae blooms have been or are still a problem.  While scientists have discovered some startling links–discussed further in the article–more study is certainly needed.  Raising awareness is an important first step.

In the meantime, CLF is continuing to advocate for solutions to the water pollution problems that causes blue-green algae blooms.  Simply put, the cause is too much of an otherwise good thing: nutrients.  Phosphorus and nitrogen are nutrients that exist in abundant quantities on this planet.  Under normal circumstances, most water bodies contain just enough of these nutrients to promote healthy growth of plant and animal life.  But improperly-treated pollution discharges have the effect of concentrating and overloading these waters, creating conditions in which the toxin-producing blue-green algae thrive.  These pollution sources include:

• poorly-controlled discharges of runoff from paved surfaces like big-box store parking lots, construction sites, rooftops, and city streets
• discharges from sewage treatment plants
• runoff from farm fields overloaded with manure

In addition to our efforts to clean up the Charles River, CLF’s Clean Water program is a driving force for cleanup of nutrient-overloaded bays and estuaries on Cape Cod, New Hampshire’s Great Bay, Vermont’s Lake Champlain,  and is supporting Maine’s efforts to adopt stringent standards to control nutrient pollution discharges to coastal and inland waters in that state.  Your continued support of CLF’s work is helping to restore these water bodies to health. And, if the scientific research establishes a firm link between brain diseases and blue-green algae blooms, your support of CLF’s work may also help protect the health of present and future generations at risk of exposure to the brain-debilitating toxins that certain blue-greens blooms produce.

On August 21st, the Thai based energy company PTTEP announced that a “crude oil gas leak incident occurred” in the Timor Sea about 155 miles northwest of Western Australia.  The energy company’s press released continued that “the size of the spill is not known.  Aproximately 40 barrels of oil were discharged from the wellhead in the initial incident.”  In the ensuing month, it has become clear that this oil spill is much more serious than initially thought:

Aerial Photo of the oil spill from the drilling platform in the Timor Sea (Source: SkyTruth)

1. As of September 25th, photos from NASA satellites document that the oil slicks and sheen from the spill covered 9,870 square miles, an area even bigger than the state of Vermont.  Part of the oil sheen has been moving perilously close to the Cartier Island Marine Reserve.
2. According to conservative estimates by the World Wildlife Fund, the rig has been leaking 400 barrels a day — over 14,000 barrels since late August.  That equates to about 600,000 gallons of oil.
3. When the spill was first reported, the government of Australia predicted it would take 7 weeks to clean up.   Already, it has been 5 weeks and the spill isn’t contained.

This devastating spill may be a world away but US ocean waters, including Georges Bank and the rest of the Gulf of Maine, are also at risk because they no longer are protected from the devastating impacts of oil and gas extraction. As a parting gift before leaving office, President Bush lifted the Presidential Moratorium on drilling for oil and natural gas on the Outer Continental Shelf that had been in place since 1990.  On September 30, 2008, Congress followed suit and lifted a longstanding legislative ban on offshore oil and gas leasing as part of a large government operations appropriations bill.  As a result, important habitat in the Gulf of Maine, including Georges Bank — one of the world’s premier fishing grounds — is at risk of industrial scale fossil fuel energy development.

As the Saudi oil fields are tapped out, there is increased pressure to drill in remote areas of the ocean.  For example, at the beginning of September, BP announced a “giant oil discovery” 35,055 feet below the Gulf of Mexico seafloor, which itself is already 4,132 feet below the surface of the ocean.  In an ironic twist of fate, just as the ocean is beginning to bear the brunt of the impacts of climate change (see my earlier blog post on ocean acidification), oil companies are stepping up efforts to locate and drill for oil and gas under the seafloor.

Clearly we need energy — but how do we design a sustainable, climate neutral ocean energy solution that will not put important marine wildlife, habitat and ecosystems at risk? As Greg Watson, then a VP at the Mass Technology Collaborative, noted, New England (and Massachusetts in particular) is “the ‘Saudi Arabia of Wind.’” Of course, we need to responsibly tap this renewable resource — we can’t build wind farms wholesale across the region just because there is a lot of wind on the ocean.  Rather, we need to engage in a thorough marine spatial planning process whereby different human uses and ecological resources are identified and mapped and responsible renewable energy development is sited in a way that doesn’t create unreasonable impacts on those activities or natural resources.  Massachusetts is in the process of doing just that — and has released the first in the nation Draft Ocean Management Plan.  In Maine, the governor appointed an Ocean Energy Task Force to evaluate how to develop offshore renewable energy.  Rhode Island is working on an Ocean Special Area Management Plan (SAMP) in part to promote offshore renewable energy development.  Finally, at the federal level, President Obama issued an Executive Memorandum calling for a national ocean policy and marine spatial planning  framework.  CLF is working on all of these issues.

Imagine if all of Vermont were covered in an oil spill.  Well it has been over a month and an equally large spill in the Timor Sea hasn’t been contained.  Oil and gas drilling is still a risky business and, thanks to former President Bush and Congress, these projects are allowable in US ocean waters.  A concerted effort is needed to make oil and gas drilling old news.  We need to usher in a new era of responsible, climate friendly, renewable ocean energy development.  Help CLF make this a reality!

What can you do to help promote responsible marine renewable energy Development?

1. Sign the CLF Ocean Petition
2. Learn more about the Massachusetts Draft Ocean Management Plan, Maine Ocean Energy Task Force, Rhode Island Ocean Special Area Management Plan and the National Ocean Policy and Marine Spatial Framework.
3. Learn more about the Timor Sea Spill

Satellite Image of the oil spill in the Timor Sea. Northwest Australia is in the lower right hand corner of the photo (Source: SkyTruth)