Groundwater and storm-water releases under review
State Attorney General Letitia James has accused Holtec, the company decommissioning the Indian Point nuclear power plant outside of Peekskill, of illegally discharging radioactive water into the Hudson River.
Holtec says the discharges are of groundwater and stormwater, not wastewater from the plant’s spent fuel pools, and are allowed.
The company is suing New York State to overturn the law, which was signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul last year and forbids Holtec from discharging radioactive materials into the Hudson. Holtec contends that only the federal government can regulate nuclear activity. But in a brief filed July 2, James argued that the law asserts that Holtec’s planned discharges of over 1 million gallons of radioactive wastewater would bring economic harm to the communities along the Hudson.
The state contends that because the law addresses economic concerns instead of ecological ones, it has the legal standing to prevent the discharges.
In her response, James alleged that, since the law was enacted, “radiological substances were discharged into the Hudson River and, upon information and belief, continue to be discharged into the Hudson River.”
The substances in question are stormwater and groundwater that flow through the drainage and sump-pump systems under the first of Indian Point’s three reactors. The state’s Decommissioning Oversight Board brought the discharges to the attorney general’s attention last month after finding evidence of them in Holtec’s 2023 Annual Radioactive Effluent Release Report, which was published in April.
In its report, Holtec notes that while the discharges of stormwater and groundwater contain tritium, strontium-90, cesium-137 and gross beta, the levels were far below the maximum amount allowed by the federal government. Holtec’s Patrick O’Brien said that an underground spring below Unit 1 is the source of the contaminated groundwater.
Because the groundwater and stormwater had to be discharged while the plant was in operation and would have to be discharged even with the plant in SAFSTOR mode — a form of “inactive” decommissioning in which a shuttered nuclear plant is left alone for decades to give radioactive material time to degrade — the discharges do not qualify as decommissioning events, he said.
“Indian Point continues to remain compliant regarding our water discharge permits,” O’Brien said in a statement. “No discharges of water related to decommissioning activities have occurred, in accordance with enactment of the state law. Discharge of stormwater and groundwater not in connection with the decommissioning of Indian Point are allowable and regulated.”
Holtec has similarly defended the planned wastewater discharges, saying they would not only be well within legally allowed limits, but that monitored radioactive wastewater discharges were a regular part of operations at Indian Point for nearly 60 years.
The company is investigating alternative methods for disposing of the wastewater. Riverkeeper and other environmental groups have advocated storing it onsite in tanks for at least 12 years, long enough for radioactive tritium to degrade to half its potency. In the meantime, Holtec has said that uncertainty around the wastewater has pushed back its timeline for completion of the decommissioning by eight years.
If a court rules that the discharges were illegal, the decision would prove costly. The penalty for the first day of discharges could be as high as $37,500, then increases up to $75,000 for the second day and $150,000 for each day thereafter.
The Decommissioning Oversight Board declined comment due to the pending litigation.
