Lawmakers Explore Additional Safeguards Concerning Indian Point
With Indian Point Energy Center within shouting distance, Putnam County lawmakers are considering if they need to call upon federal and state officials to require Indian Point’s owner, Entergy, to implement a wide-ranging emergency notification system.
Prompted by a neighboring governing body, the county Legislature discussed at a Health Committee meeting last week if it should approve a resolution signed off by the Rockland County Legislature that requests the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission and New York State force Entergy to develop a system that would send out emails, texts messages, and automated phone calls to all residents within a ten mile radius of the nuclear facility in case of an emergency.
Bureau of Emergency Services Commissioner Tony Sutton said after talking with a worker within Rockland, those county lawmakers decided to make this move because of an apparent lack of communication when a fire knocked out one of the two plan reactor’s and put it offline.
But he called the motion proposed by Rockland “a little redundant” because Entergy already has a system named Code Red that has ability to alert county residents by telephone of emergencies or important public information. There is also NY-Alert that can contact an individual through the web, cell phone, email and other technologies.
“It seems to be calling for something that currently exists,” Sutton said.
Legislator Barbara Scuccimarra stressed that if the county legislature is going to consider the piece of legislation, it must invite Entergy to be part of the discussion. After legislators passed a resolution in April 2013 that called for an expanded evacuation plan and better storage of fuel rods, County Executive MaryEllen Odell vetoed it because Entergy was never invited to the table to discuss it, Scuccimarra said. The veto was eventually overridden 8-1.
While Legislator Dini LoBue wanted to research the topic more, she noted the county can “never have too many safeguards.”
