Nuclear Waste Must be Secured and Our Waters Protected -- Take Action!

Buffalo Niagara Region has a serious waste problem and perhaps none is so serious as the West Valley Nuclear Waste Facility 30 miles south of Buffalo.  An array of nuclear waste has been stored and some buried on an erodible plateau since the 1960s, put in place before there were any laws on the siting of such dangerous waste.  This site is managed by the Department of Energy and owned by the NYS Energy Research and Development Authority, agencies responsible for cleaning up the waste and protecting public health and our waters.

Charley Bowman, of the Sierra Club Niagara Group, points out that “the protection of fresh water supplies underpins organized existence of human beings. There are enormous amounts of radioactivity (100,000’s of Curies) buried and stored at the West Valley nuclear waste site. Some of that radioactivity is escaping beyond the site boundaries and now resides in the surrounding unstable soils, trees and creeks. Some of the radioactive elements will be dangerous for millions of years.”

The Department of Energy begins Scoping Hearings for a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on March 19, 20 and 21, to determine the final disposition of this waste site.  Joanne Hameister who has been working with the Coalition on West Valley Nuclear Wastes since the 1970s states that her group “has been involved with the decision process for four decades.  After three Environmental Impact Statements and a fourth to begin in March, billions of dollars, a lot of surveys and studies, lawsuits and many 'duct tape' solutions to problems, we might have a direction for the future of the site.  The next decision must protect the water of the Great Lakes, Erie and Ontario, drinking water for millions of people downstream and for thousands of generations that could inherit these risks of radiation if we do not 'do the right thing' now.  It is a big order: dig it up, secure the waste and do not forget it.”

 “The government scoping meetings March 19, 20 and 21 are the public’s chance to tell the Department of Energy and NY Energy Research and Development Authority that we want full cleanup of the West Valley nuclear waste site. But the only way the deadly waste will be removed from the Great Lakes watershed is if our elected officials MAKE IT HAPPEN.”  Diane D’Arrigo argues that “the Department of Energy, NYSERDA, all their contractors and other ‘regulatory agencies’ will not step up unless they are forced to do so” based on the communities experience with the 2010 Environmental Impact Statement that delayed the decision for over a decade.

Hearings will be held at three different locations: 

Monday, March 19, 2018, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
West Valley Volunteer Hose Company, Inc., Firemen’s Memorial Hall and Training, 9091 Route 240, West Valley, NY 14171, in the Main Hall.

Tuesday, March 20, 2018, from 6:00p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Erie Community College, City Campus, Post Office Building, 121 Ellicott Street, Buffalo, NY 14203, in the Minnie Gillette Auditorium.

Wednesday, March 21, 2018, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Seneca Nation of Indians Cattaraugus Council Chambers, 12837 Route 438, Irving, NY 14081

Pat Townsend of the Interfai th Climate Justice Community says that she is “already writing my comments to email them to DOE and NYSERDA during the public comment period that has just started. I remember the rainfall that caused the Gowanda flood of 2009 and the landslide it caused at West Valley. With our crazy, changing weather, who knows what erosion will do to the West Valley nuclear wastes? I've seen the maps: erosion could take radioactive waste right down the creeks to Lake Erie and Buffalo's water."

--  Submitted by Lynda Schneekloth, Sierra Club Niagara Group


More information:
Nuclear Information and Resource Service   www.nirs.org/campaigns/west-valley
Information Center   www.seiswestvalleysite.com 
Sierra Club Niagara Group   www.niagarasierraclub.com/issues/west-valley-nuclear-waste-site

COMMUNITY FORUM: Don't want Nuclear Waste in Your Water? Get Informed and Take Action!

Presentation by 

ALAN LOCKWOOD, MD
Professor Emeritus of Neurology, University at Buffalo &

Senior Scientist, Physicians for Social Responsibility.

Thursday, March 1 at 7:00 PM,
Burchfield Penney Art Center, 1300 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo. (across from Albright Knox Art Gallery) [Map]

The Presentation will be followed by a Panel Discussion 

Learn how to make comments at Scoping Hearings

For detailed information on the Scoping Hearings, 

Click Here and see Page 2 of the document. 

 

Thanks to the Burchfield Penny Art Gallery, the Western New York Environmental Alliance, Sierra Club Niagara Group
 

Brian Higgins puts the Brakes on Transport of High-Level Nuclear Waste across the Peace Bridge

House Passes Bill With Higgins’ Amendment Requiring 

Risk Assessment of Proposed Nuclear Waste Transport 

Across Peace Bridge

Congressman Brian Higgins (NY-26) announced approval of HR 2200, the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Intelligence and Information Sharing Act of 2015.  The bill includes an amendment, introduced by Higgins, which requires the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis to examine and share information about the risks associated with a plan to transport highly enriched liquid uranium across the Peace Bridge.

The Department of Energy has a plan to transport liquid nuclear waste from Ontario’s Chalk River Research reactor over the Peace Bridge, through Western New York and other states en route to the Department of Energy’s Savannah River site beginning next year.

Last July Congressman Higgins called on the U.S. Department of Energy to conduct an environmental review of the plan.  He argued, in contrast to spent nuclear fuel, the shipment of liquid nuclear waste is far more complicated, more radioactive, and therefore a breach or contamination would be significantly more dangerous.  Despite the fact that the route was approved nearly two decades ago, the DOE maintained a new Environmental Impact Statement was not necessary.

The bill approved by the House now compels a risk assessment before the plan proceeds.

“The route was approved nearly twenty years ago, and it reflects a pre-9/11 mindset with respect to the threat and consequences of terrorism,” said Congressman Higgins. “This legislation, as amended, would ensure that the Department of Energy has the information it needs to reconsider the wisdom of transporting dangerous nuclear material through high risk areas like Buffalo.”

Public Meeting: West Valley Nuclear Waste

From the Coalition on West Valley Nuclear Wastes (CWVNW):

The Department of Energy (DOE) will be conducting its Quarterly West Valley Meeting on Tuesday, May 4, 6:30pm at the Ashford Office Complex, 9030 Route 219, West Valley, NY [Map].

This is an important public meeting. IF AT ALL POSSIBLE, PLEASE TRY TO ATTEND as a show of support for the protection of our Great Lakes Erie and Ontario and all the people living downstream.

The Record of Decision, issued 4/15/2010, for the Environmental Impact Statement issued in December 2008, does not afford long-term protection downstream because it does not commit to a complete and full waste exhumation, as recognized and requested by the hundreds of comments, representing hundreds of thousands of affected citizens.

DOE and NYSERDA have to be challenged on this flawed decision that is not supported by valid science, nor was it supported by the impressive and vast majority and sincerity of comments submitted to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement.

The Cattaraugus Creek and Lake Erie and drinking water for millions of people are at high risk for thousands of generations and we owe them the right decision now.

For more information, contact Joanne Hameister, Chair, CWVNW Steering Committee.

Buffalo News Editorial: West Valley needs more

Earlier blog posts on the need for a full clean up of the radioactive waste are here.

Cleanup Nuclear Waste at West Valley

Coalition urges complete West Valley cleanup - 9/02/2009

A coalition urged the public Tuesday to contact state and federal officials in the next week to demand full cleanup of the state’s largest nuclear waste site at West Valley.

Surrounded by about 20 people holding mops, buckets and brooms, speakers assembled outside the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority offices in the Larkin at Exchange Building in Buffalo. They called on the agency and the federal Department of Energy to support the complete cleanup of the West Valley nuclear waste site to avoid future radioactive contamination of Lake Erie drinking water.

The coalition, which includes representatives of environmental, religious and sportsmen groups, urged the public to make their voices heard by the public comment deadline, Tuesday, September 8. “Tell them you’re concerned about the water quality of the Great Lakes and the drinking supply of fresh water for yourselves and your children,” said Bob Ciesielski of the Sierra Club.

“We are tired of waiting for New York State and the Department of Energy to make a decision to clean up the nuclear waste at West Valley,” said Diane D’Arrigo of the Nuclear Information and Resource Center.

Read the full report by Mark Sommer in The Buffalo News.

NOTE: I phoned U.S. Dept. of Energy Secretary Steven Chu's office, and they said they had received many calls about this issue. However, they also said that they are taking comments only by U.S. mail or by FAX. Their contact information is below:

U.S. Mail:

Attn: Catherine Bohan
EIS Document Manager
West Valley Demonstration Project, U.S. Department of Energy
P.O. Box 2368
Germantown, MD 20874

Toll Free Fax: 866-306-9094

NOTE: I phoned NYSERDA President Frank Murray's office ( 866-697-3732 x 3320) after hours and was able to record a message and send it to him.