One year after Windham County lawmakers sent this letter to the editor of the Brattleboro Reformer,making public the recognition that Entergy Louisiana’s Vermont Yankee is in violation of the state statute and public trust doctrine, the groundwater protection law passed in Vermont in 2008.

Two page letter:

http://www.allbusiness.com/gov…

Groundwater protection law:

http://www.leg.state.vt.us/doc…

PSB Docket 7600, was opened in the same time-frame the letter was published, also a year ago, in which environmental group Conservation Law Foundation & citizen advocate antinuclear group New England Coalition asked the VT PSB to take the action of ceasing Vermont Yankee operation or other ameliorative action to stop the release of radioactive releases into the environment.

http://www.rpc.windham.vt.us/e…

One year later, in mid-January of this year, the hearing turned out to be another typical display of Entergy Louisiana’s complete arrogance & utter disregard for the state of Vermont. Engineer testifying foolishly claimed that the leak was not due to the pipe(s), but the cracked concrete casing casing around the pipe(s). This interpretation of the RCA was refuted by Arnie Gundersen & contradicted by NRC’s Neil Sheehan.

http://vtdigger.org/2011/01/12…

PSB in their ruling ordered Entergy to submit bimonthly reports, interestingly in the form of legal affadavits:

http://psb.vermont.gov/sites/p…

During the hearing, no contamination results were submitted to the VT DOH by Entergy/VY. They later claimed a testing equipment failure, but reported this to no one. The fact that this went unreported for roughly 2 weeks, as well as the curious timing, appears to constitute a coverup as there is no reason to conceal this information & not request assistance if there is nothing to hide.

The glaring statewide media headlines reporting the results of the new contamination, thought to be yet another new leak, during the hearings would have been a stunning illustration of CLF’s & NECs contention & served as vivid & damning testimony to the board regarding the immediacy of the situation at hand, as well as the fact that one year after the previous leak(s), nothing has changed & leak(s) appear to be continuing, precisely the reason for opening the docket.

According to a press release published in VTDigger, Vermont Environmental Court has ruled:

“The court’s ruling supports our contention that Vermont Yankee’s continued contamination of groundwater violates the public trust,” said Elizabeth Courtney, VNRC’s Executive Director.

“The ruling also has the effect of strongly supporting[..]this…leaking plant to be shut down,” she said.

And:

“The decision is the first substantive judicial interpretation of the 2008 law (Act 199) designating Vermont’s groundwater to be a public trust resource”

http://vtdigger.org/2011/03/04…

This, along with a few other recent events seems to signal a shift in the wind surrounding Entergy Louisiana’s Vermont Yankee & the continuing debacle. It will certainly be interesting watching these events unfold.