Environmentalists hammer state on VY’s discharge plan

By Kathryn Casa |Vermont Guardian

posted December 9, 2005

BRATTLEBORO — Water quality experts are steaming over the state’s preliminary approval of Vermont Yankee’s plan to cut costs by discharging hotter water into the Connecticut River.

A barrage of criticism over the way the plan was reviewed, however, may prompt the Department of Environmental Conservation’s Wastewater Management Division to consider reopening public comment on the permit variance application, said an attorney for the Agency of Natural Resources (ANR).

Entergy, which owns the Vernon reactor, is seeking to increase by one degree Fahrenheit the temperature of approximately 450 million gallons of water it discharges back into the river daily during late spring, summer, and early fall. This would allow the company to cut back on the use of its cooling towers during the hottest months of the year, reducing wear on the plant’s equipment and allowing it to operate more efficiently, according to a state “fact sheet” on the permit.

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