Action Alert

Testify for a Full Cleanup of the West Valley Nuclear Waste Site

This opportunity has closed.

Update on Department of Energy Hearings:
March 30 in Albany, March 31 in Irving, April 1 in West Valley and April 2 in Buffalo

Help protect your drinking water, environment and community. We need you to testify at upcoming hearings on the West Valley nuclear waste site cleanup plan (described in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement) released by the federal and state government.

The safest, most cost-effective cleanup is to dig up the waste. Economists and scientists found in a new study that leaving buried waste onsite at West Valley is very risky and expensive while a full waste excavation cleanup protects the Great Lakes, poses the least health risk and is a lower cost. The leaking site, 30 miles south of Buffalo, threatens Lakes Erie and Ontario, with tons of highly radioactive waste. The new study also found major erosion will plague the site in the near future resulting in high doses of radioactivity to future generations.

Will you help protect the Great Lakes and Western New York for future generations? Please testify in support of the safest cleanup- an immediate decision to dig up the waste so it cannot leak into our drinking water. Without public pressure, the Department of Energy will select their “preferred alternative,” which is to wait up to 30 years on a final cleanup decision, while the deadly waste continues to spread underground.  Here are more details on the hearings and fact sheets to help you with your testimony.

To help you prepare your testimony, we can send you a “Testimony Talking Points” Memo with a critique of the government’s proposal, and a summary of the exciting new study revealing the real costs–economic, environmental and health–of the West  Valley cleanup which found digging up the waste is the best plan.

Please contact us at dianed@nirs.org (301-270-6477 X16) or annerabe@msn.com (518-732-4538) and we will send you the packet.  We also have sample West Valley Cleanup Resolutions and letters to the editor which succinctly summarize the issues.  See the independent new cleanup study at www.besafenet.com

Please Speak at the West Valley Public Hearings

• March 30, 6:30-9:30 PM, Crowne Plaza Albany, State & Lodge Sts., Albany, NY
• March 31, 6:00-9:00 PM, Seneca Nation, Wm. Seneca Bldg, 12837 Rt. 438, Irving, NY
• April 1, 6:30-9:30 PM, Ashford Office Complex, 9030 Route 219, West Valley, NY
• April 2, 6:30-9:30 PM, Erie Comm. College, City Campus Auditorium, 121 Ellicott St., Buffalo, NY

The deadline for public comments is June 8, 2009. (Send to Catherine.M.Bohan@wv.doe.gov) The Draft Environmental Impact Statement and Decommissioning Plan are at www.wv.doe.gov

Here are the Proposed Cleanup Options.

• Sitewide Waste Removal – Digging up or excavating waste with off-site disposal
• Sitewide Close In-Place – Leaving buried waste on site.
• Phased Decision-making – (Preferred DOE/State Alternative).  Very limited cleanup, and delay cleanup decision on most radioactive portions of site for up to 30 years.

Thank you. Together we can protect the Great Lakes region from the largest nuclear waste site in the state.

Sincerely,

Barbara Warren, Citizens’ Environmental Coalition, warrenba@msn.com
Diane D’Arrigo, Nuclear Information and Resource Service, dianed@nirs.org
Anne Rabe, Center for Health, Env. & Justice, annerabe@msn.com

© 2009 Great Lakes News.