
FACT SHEET: Non Binding Public Advisory Question for the 2025 Spring Town Ballot
1. WHEREAS, Holtec, owner of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, is discharging untreated radioactively and chemically contaminated industrial wastewater into the atmosphere; and,
2. WHEREAS, these airborne pollutants are being carried by prevailing winds over and into Cape Cod Bay and our communities; and,
3. WHEREAS, just as liquid discharge into Cape Cod Bay is in violation the Massachusetts Ocean Sanctuaries Act and other state laws, this gaseous discharge also violates the Ocean Sanctuaries Act and other state laws Holtec agreed to follow; and,
4. WHEREAS, these airborne pollutants threaten public and environmental health and safety-including the safety of Holtec’s own workers-and our marine-based economy,
THEREFORE, shall the people of the Town of —— direct the town government to communicate with Governor Maura Healey, Attorney General Andrea Campbell, the State Legislature, and all other relevant authorities to employ all means available to ensure that the law is enforced and to ensure further that Holtec immediately cease the gaseous discharge of the radioactively and chemically contaminated industrial wastewater at Pilgrim?
Facts:
*Since February 2023, Holtec has used submersible heaters in the radioactive industrial wastewater under the guise of heating the building for “worker comfort” and evaporated 200,000 gallons in one year. Aerosol particles from the heating process releasing out the vent transport highly radioactive particles into our atmosphere.
* Prevailing winds ensure that the majority of these radioactive pollutants will inevitably fall into Cape Cod Bay, threatening public health, the environment, and the region’s marine-based economy.
*The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection denied Holtec the dumping permit under the Ocean Sanctuaries Act which prohibits discharge of both “liquid and gaseous materials,” yet the state has not enforced existing laws and regulations to prohibit the airborne pollution discharge.
*According to Dr. Ken Buesseler of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, radionuclides in the wastewater bioaccumulate and are “a million times more than background” levels already found in Cape Cod Bay. The National Academies of Science confirm there is no safe level of exposure to radionuclides that does not cause harm.
Bottom line: IT'S ILLEGAL!
More information: www.saveourbayma.org
If you have questions please contact Diane Turco, Cape Downwinders, tturco@comcast.net