Entergy's Pilgrim Nuclear Named One of "Dirty Dozen" Polluters -- Again

Toxics Action Center Calls on "Dirty Dozen" Polluters to Clean up Their Act  

Sylvia Broude, Toxics Action Center, C: 203-589-9989, W: 617-747-4407
Pine duBois, Pilgrim Coalition, C: 781-424-0353, W: 781-585-2322 

SOMERSET, MA-For years, Toxics Action Center has annually "celebrated" the Dirty Dozen Awards, profiling twelve of New England's egregious polluters who the public health and environmental non-profit say have failed to take appropriate action to address their pollution problems. Today, Entergy's Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth was named as one of the top 12. It was also named to the list in 2001 and 2007.

"The Dirty Dozen Award winners are dinosaurs. Their business practices are antiquated and becoming extinct. They could stave off extinction, but they would need to move forward in adopting many of the recommendations we outline in this report, including moving towards clean renewable energy and energy efficiency and phasing out persistent toxic chemicals." said Sylvia Broude, Executive Director for Toxics Action Center.

Toxics Action Center released a report today called "25 Years of the Dirty Dozen: Past and Current Pollution Threats in New England", profiling 12 sites and companies across New England, naming them "the most notorious pollution threats in the region" and proposing solutions to long-term pollution trends. "These Dirty Dozen awards spotlight repeat offenders who have still not cleaned up their messes along with several emergent threats, and generally highlight a wide array of toxic hazards ranging from leaking landfills to power plants, trash incinerators and hazardous waste sites. All of the sites pose a significant threat to public health and the environment and need immediate action by industry and/or government officials," said Broude.

Entergy's Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant was named a "winner" for Southeastern Massachusetts. Pilgrim Power Station's waste and reactor contain 1,000 times the radiation levels of a Hiroshima-sized bomb. An attack on the plant could result in 100,000 deaths within a year of the accident.

"Pilgrim releases radiation daily into air and water and is built with the same flawed Mark I reactor design as Fukushima Daiichi," said David Agnew from an active "Cape Downwinders" group and spokesperson for Pilgrim Coalition, an alliance of local groups across the South Shore and the Cape. "We need to heed the warning call of Fukushima and retire Pilgrim for good." Pine duBois from Jones River Watershed Association, a coalition partner, also spoke, saying that the watershed group has been pursuing state and federal regulators since February, and she recently joined a lawsuit against Entergy. "Pilgrim has violated the Clean Water Act more than 33,000 times since 1996," said duBois. "Our ocean is not Entergy's dump: Cape Cod Bay belongs to all of us, and our regulators should enforce the laws that prevent this kind of pollution."

The recommendations in the report, available at www.toxicsaction.org.

The Dirty Dozen Awards were selected from a set of nominations by a thirteen-member panel of environmental and public health professionals. Other Massachusetts sites profiled in the report include Advanced Disposal's South Hadley landfill and the General Electric PCB site in Pittsfield. Read more at www.toxicsaction.org.