A Letter from VNRC about VY, Tritium and Groundwater

Dear Members, Activists and Friends:

Vermont Yankee is in the news again because officials have found radioactive tritium in a new well. This time, it's a well that had been used for drinking water as recently as last March.

Click here to read a well-researched story from VTDigger outlining what regulators in other states have done to address tritium leaks at other nuclear power plants.

Here in Vermont, we need your help to put pressure on our own officials. They need to get serious and crack down on Vermont Yankee.

Ever since the tritium leak at VY was discovered earlier this year, VY has been downplaying the spill, saying the tritium was not in drinking water.

But VNRC, in recent legal filings before state regulators, has pointed out that under Vermont law, the state’s groundwater – all of it – is a public trust resource and should be managed and protected for all Vermonters. Now, with this most recent news, VY has been stripped even of the flimsy “it’s not in the drinking water” defense.

Aquifers are connected. Ignoring that is like suggesting that venom from a snake bite on your hand will never flow to your heart.

Here is what you can do, right now: contact the office of Gov. Jim Douglas, and tell him to order the Agency of Natural Resources to do its job and crack down on the poisoning of our groundwater at Vermont Yankee. Call his office today at 802-828-3333. Or, you can quickly go to his website here and write a note.

Please, do this today.

On another water issue, this time on our northern boundary . . .

The federal Environmental Protection Agency recently ordered Jay Peak ski area to restore wetlands after the resort filled in wetlands and streams with dirt, sand and rocks, in violation of the Clean Water Act. This action by EPA is largely the result of VNRC’s persistent and detailed work, over several years, to highlight the water quality problems at Jay Peak. Click here for more information about VNRC’s on-the-ground stormwater work, including a copy of a VNRC report, “Unchecked and Illegal – How ANR is Failing to Protect Vermont’s Lakes and Streams.”

Our work to protect Vermont’s precious water resources would not be possible without members like you. Thanks for all you do!

The VNRC Team