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Rockland
Journal-News
January 17, 2003
Congressional hearings on Indian
Point called for
By JANE LERNER
The Journal News
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| Democratic
Reps. Eliot Engel and Nita Lowey said yesterday they would urge Congress
to hold hearings on the Indian Point nuclear power plants evacuation
plan.
Federal hearings open a new front as local activists — fresh off
this week's major county victories — take the battle to close the
nuclear power plant to Washington.
"Congressional hearings are absolutely essential," said
Marilyn Elie, co-founder of the Westchester Citizens Awareness Network,
which has worked for years to close the Buchanan facility. "Our
federal people have to get involved."
Rep. Sue Kelly of Katonah, the lone Republican member of Congress in
Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties, was more cautious. |
Kelly, whose
district includes Buchanan, is keeping her options open, a spokesman
said. In a letter yesterday, Engel urged Gov. George Pataki to not to
certify the evacuation plan.
"There is no doubt, if terrorists
were to successfully attack the power plant, millions of New Yorkers
could be in grave danger and have no way to escape the
devastation," Engel said in a statement.
Pataki, speaking on a radio call-in show
last night, said he was waiting to see what the counties around Indian
Point decided to do with their evacuation plans.
If the counties do not certify the plans,
he said, it becomes a "moot point" for the state and an issue
for the federal government to respond to.
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groups have been increasing their calls for a shutdown of the nuclear
power plants since an independent report released last week concluded
that the evacuation plans could not protect the public.
County executives from Westchester, Rockland and Orange counties said
this week that they would not sign off on a state certification of
evacuation plans. Putnam County Executive Robert Bondi still plans to
sign the certificate. "We can sit back and celebrate for five
minutes," said Maureen Ritter of the Rockland chapter of the
Citizens Awareness Network. "But now we need to move on."
Ritter said the battle will move to a state and federal arena, then
to the courts. "In the end, we will prevail," she said. Engel,
the only member of the local delegation who now serves on the house
Energy and Commerce Committee, said he had a commitment to meet in
Washington with Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Richard Meserve. |
"After
meeting with him, it would be appropriate to see if we could have
congressional hearings on the issue of NRC oversight of Indian Point and
the problems with the emergency evacuation plans," said Engel,
D-Bronx. Engel said he would ask Lowey, D-Harrison, Kelly and the
Westchester and Rockland county executives to attend the meeting.
The Rockland County Conservation Association already is lining up
people to testify before Congress, said member Frank Leonard. The group
is interested in testimony from Won-Young Kim of the Lamont-Doherty
Earth Observatory in Palisades. He monitors earthquake activity in the
Northeast.
The Ramapo fault runs across the boundaries of Orange and Rockland,
through Stony Point, crosses the Hudson River and passes near Peekskill,
Kim said. |
| It
was examined when the power plants at Indian Point were being built, he
said. But Kim said he knew of no examinations of the fault since. Indian
Point 1 first started operations in 1962.
"There is no seismic
monitoring that I am aware of going on now," Kim said. "It
should be monitored."
North Rockland Schools Superintendent
Dodge Watkins is willing to testify that a smaller version of the
evacuation plan failed in May 2001 after an explosion at the Lovett
Generating Station released a cloud of fibrous material that officials
feared contained asbestos. |
Parents jammed
roads before officials could begin an evacuation.
"We couldn't even get near the
schools — let alone get the buses there," Watkins said.
"And that was minuscule compared to the panic that a terrorist
attack at Indian Point would cause."
end. |
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