Give your opinion on Indian Point
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- April
- 18
The panel conducting an independent safety evaluation of Indian Point for the nuclear plant’s owners will hold two public meetings Monday to hear what questions the public would like to be answered about operations at the facility. The 10-expert group has been commissioned by Entergy Nuclear to look into nuclear safety, security and emergency preparedness in Indian Point as the plant applies for a 20-year operating license extension. Those who would like to speak at the meeting should e-mail safety@nyindianpoint.org. Those unable to attend can submit questions or comments for the panel at the same e-mail address. The meetings are 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday at Cortlandt Colonial Reception Hall, 714 Albany Post Road, Cortlandt Manor.
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on Friday, April 18th, 2008 at 4:58 pm by Greg Clary.
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Journal News staff writer Greg Clary writes Earth Watch, reporting on environmental issues in the lower Hudson region. Clary has been a reporter, editor and columnist at the Journal News since 1988 and has covered police and courts, transportation, municipal government, development and the environment in the Lower Hudson Valley, among other topics. 
Laura Incalcaterra covers the environment, open space and zoning and planning issues for The Journal News. A Boston College graduate, Laura grew up in Rockland, attended East Ramapo schools and has worked for The Journal News since 1993. Laura has written features and covered North Rockland, crime, government and a host of other issues.
Mike Risinit covers Patterson and Kent in Putnam County, as well as environmental topics touching on the Hudson River and the Great Swamp. Risinit has been a reporter at The Journal News since 1998.
My question to Gannett is this: Do you advise people to attend, where they might gain the ear of a highly expert investigative group, to specifically address their area of concern? Or does Gannett feel (as do opposer groups) that this kind of hearing can only hurt the political chances of keeping the fear level high enough to sway local politicians against the plant?
The public has answered already, with 53% supporting the plant, 20% with no feelings in the matter, and only 27% against Indian Point, with the numbers ever so slowly swinging in favor of the plant. Which is the better alternative? To boycott, and display by way of sparse attendance, that nobody really cares? Or pack the place, and steal a public outreach meeting, prevent the public’s questions from being addressed, and give the world yet more meaningless anarchist street theater to “enjoy”?
It must be troubling indeed, for those whose agitation careers depend on flacking fear after fear, to see a venue where the public gets to ask unbiased questions of unbiased investigators. The public just might find out it has all been political theater, after all.
....and since this blog is officially self-described as: “a chance to talk about the wild denizens that share the Lower Hudson Valley with us and the natural settings that make this place home for everyone.”
Let me reprise one of the earthier aspects of Indian Point….
The Buchanan/Indian Point turkeys are long-famous celebritiy birds. Historical accounts of turks roosting in trees in and around East Haverstraw, Centerville, and then Buchanan, abound, going as far back as 1865, and just yesterday, I had to slow to 3 MPH on Broadway as two large black Toms jiggled their best finery for an admiring gaggle of hens, all right along the double white line. The wooded property occupied by Indian Point grants the tribe sanctuary, and so they flourish, unhunted, within Indian Point.
I saw my first IPEC coyote, about three years ago, again, right on Broadway, at about 5 AM. Recently, as I returned home , just inside the unused north gate of Indian Point, I saw a magnificent red fox, motionless, with front paw raised, and orange tail outstretched like a pointing dog. I guess he was scoping out those fat turks.
The IPEC deer are legion. Any terrorists with antlers and hooves would have a great time..they would have maybe 150 deer to hide among. The deer outside the fence often walk up to the fence, and gaze at their fat’n’lucky siblings on the inside. I would’t put it past their abilities to jump the 12 foot razor wire, but the guards tell me they occasionally let the deer go in and out unchallenged, without so much as a corporate ID card, or breathalyzer sniff.
Starting about 10 years ago, the hawks & eagles started to become really noticeable. The hawks tend to fly more actively, and the eagles tend to ride the thermals, motionless, at about 500 to 1000 feet up, but otherwise they’re hard to tell apart, unless they get close. The count each year goes up and up, and my wife and I counted 35 eagles in a loose pack that covered half the Hudson sky above our house, riding the Indian Point thermal currents up, up until almost disappearing, and then swooping down to the river to eat the fish attracted by IPEC’s outfall plume. When one of the IPEC eagles swoops over our front yard at about 15 feet up, it’s very impressive, and I can well understand the urban legend about giant birds getting started….. these babies look to be maybe 8 or 10 feet tip to tip. So far they’ve not grabbed my wife’s cocker spaniel.
In 1995, Indian Point installed the Ristroph fish ride at Indian Point 2, and just today, I had occasion to stand by the plexiglas trap door, and watch the fish swim past, saved from being diverted into Indian Point, by a fun sluiceway that Indian Point designed and installed just for them. At Dorney Park, that ride would cost you $38 to go on.
The waters about 100 yards outfrom the plant’s outfall canal are a favorite gathering spot for both winged and finned species to congregate, enjoy the slightly warm water, and feed on the extra plant material allowed by the 2 or 3 degree temperature lift. The water always churns & ripples there, just from the fish activity. (They eat the Chesapeake Blue Crabs that cannot live anywhere else in the Hudson estuary because of the cold.)
So while you’re waxing eloquent about Westchester’s wildlife, just remember the nature sanctuary on the Hudson that also runs your computer, your elevators, and Hudson Valley Hospital’s emergency room….. Indian Point Energy Center and Wildlife Sanctuary.
Right now I’m sort of expecting the first Buchanan bear to appear, but so far, no luck.
Just swans, ducks, geese, turkeys, opossums, raccoons, skunks, coyotes, foxes, hawks, eagles, osprey, seagulls, & Chesapeake blue crabs, all enthusiastic pro-nuclear supporters. And occasionally, Marilyn Elie & Mark Jacobs in a kayak. Poor Mark, can’t keep his end in the water!