BARNSTABLE – Cape Cod Bay Watch, an environmental group, is urging residents of Cape Cod and the Plymouth area to turn out to an upcoming hearing about changes at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station.
Cape Cod Bay Watch, which is based in Kingston, is a program of the Jones River Watershed Association. Formed in 2012, it is made up of individuals with an interest in the health of local ecosystems, in particular Cape Cod Bay.
Karen Vale, program manager for Cape Cod Bay Watch, said the group is concerned about a new emergency water cooling system that would pump sea water from Cape Cod Bay into the reactor facility if an emergency caused the station’s other cooling system to fail.
“When they’re manually cooling this reactor, there’s going to be a lot of radioactive contaminated water. Where does that water go? And from what we can understand, it’s going to go to Cape Cod Bay and that’s why we’re concerned with this project,” Vale said.
Vale said the group is asking the state’s Department of Environmental Protection to do an environmental review of the station. The concern, Vale said, includes marine life, as well as the health of the bay itself.
Calling the new system, “a Fukushima fix,” Vale said the back-up system creates other environmental issues.
The term “Fukushima fix,” refers to the meltdown that occurred at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan when a tsumami caused an earthquake that led to the plant’s meltdown.
The DEP is holding a public hearing on the new system at 10 a.m. at Plymouth Town Hall on Tuesday, November 18.
She said the hearing is due to the advocacy work of the bay watch group.
“It’s because we had a group of citizens that wrote to DEP and they requested them to have a hearing so they could express their concerns and have some of their questions answered,” she said.
