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Push is on for full cleanup of NY nuclear site

Push is on for full cleanup of NY nuclear site
newsday.com By CAROLYN THOMPSON | Associated Press Writer May 29, 2009 BUFFALO, N.Y. – With a little more than a week left to be heard in the decades-old debate over how to clean up a western New York nuclear site, supporters of complete decontamination say anything less would jeopardize the health of the Great Lakes and its vital freshwater.State and federal energy officials in November recommended a two-phase plan that would have them spend $1 billion to remove contaminated buildings and soil from the West Valley site over the next several years, while deferring for up to 30 years the larger question of whether to leave some radioactive waste forever buried…………..

………Environmentalists and others say removing all traces of high- and low-level waste is the only way, given the erosion-prone geology, to ensure that it will not eventually seep into nearby creeks, make its way into Lakes Erie and Ontario and contaminate drinking water supplies.

“Common sense dictates we make a decision now to protect the Great Lakes and protect the water,” Diane D’Arrigo of the Nuclear Information & Resource Service said Friday…………………….

………U.S. Reps. Brian Higgins and Eric Massa, both New York Democrats, support a full cleanup and said they would ask Energy Secretary Steven Chu for a 90-day extension of the public comment period that began in November.

Among others weighing in to support a full cleanup have been the Presbytery of Western New York, which passed a resolution citing its “Christian commitment to caring for creation,” Catholic Charities and the Western New York Council on Occupational Safety & Health.

Push is on for full cleanup of NY nuclear site — Newsday.com

May 30, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes | antinuclear