Good morning!

Thank you once again for supporting this petition. I really appreciate it, and I hope your summer has been going well.

In case you haven't heard, I wanted to let you know that the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection issued a tentative determination on July 24th denying Holtec’s application to modify its permit to allow the discharge of approximately 1.1 million gallons of radioactive wastewater into Cape Cod Bay.

The Department determined that the discharge violates the Massachusetts Ocean Sanctuaries Act (M.G.L. c.132A §§12A-16J inclusive and §18), which prohibits the discharge of industrial waste into Cape Cod Bay.

This is a TENTATIVE DETERMINATION to deny Holtec's permit, and Mass DEP is currently accepting public comment. It is now up to the public to convince the MassDEP to make their decision to deny Holtec's permit final, period.

It is important to send public comments to MassDEP, noting why the Department should issue a final determination denying Holtec’s application to modify its permit.

These comments are due by 5pm on Aug. 31st, 2023, and MassDEP requests that you send them by email to massdep.npdes@mass.gov.

I have included an example of a suggested email below, forwarded to me by Save Our Bay MA. Please be sure to edit this so it matches your personal writing style, instead of copying/pasting.

Thank you again for your support,

Ryan

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Send to: massdep.npdes@mass.gov

Subject line: Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station

Dear Ms. Coniaris:

I am writing to support the tentative determination by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) to deny Holtec’s application for a modified Surface Water Discharge Permit that would allow Holtec to discharge radioactive and chemically contaminated wastewater into Cape Cod Bay.

MassDEP’s tentative determination that the requested discharge is prohibited by the Massachusetts Ocean Sanctuaries Act is entirely correct. That act prohibits the “dumping or discharge or commercial, municipal, domestic or industrial waste” into an Ocean Sanctuary. Cape Cod, Plymouth, Kingston, and Duxbury Bays are all protected ocean sanctuaries under this act, making Holtec's dumping plan illegal.

Because Holtec’s proposed discharge is illegal, the Department’s final determination should deny its application. Thank you for enforcing the law to protect our ocean sanctuaries.

Sincerely,

[your name]
[your address]