Pittston cut from dump list > Waste authority trims possible sites for nuclear waste dump from 12 to six

AUGUSTA — Pittston residents burst into applause, twirled noisemakers and popped open a bottle of champagne Tuesday as state officials decided the town will no longer be considered as a site for a nuclear waste dump.

With little discussion, Maine’s Low-Level Radioactive Waste Authority voted unanimously to remove the southern Maine town and five other towns and unorganized territories from its list of a dozen candidate sites.

The panel left six other sites on its list.

Pittston residents, some wearing green T-shirts declaring their town a “Nuclear Free Zone,” toasted each other to celebrate the culmination of months of vocal efforts to keep a dump out of their town.

“Finally! We have been telling them since April that the site was not adequate,” said Vicki Kelley of Pittston. “I think the squeaky wheel gets the grease.”

Following a recommendation of the Stone & Webster Engineering Corp., the authority also dropped Edinburg and Garfield Plantation, as well as three unorganized townships in northern Maine from further consideration.

Sites that were still under consideration include Unity Township in northern Kennebec County, the Maine Yankee nuclear plant site in Wiscasset, and Summit, which is northeast of Old Town.

Also remaining under consideration were unorganized townships in Piscataquis and Somerset counties.

Sites that were culled failed to satisfy all of the authority’s criteria to assure the facility would have no environmental impact.

Officials for Maine Yankee, the state’s largest low-level waste generator, said the authority should now examine the plant’s Wiscasset site more thoroughly to see if it can safely accommodate a waste facility.

Maine Yankee spokesman Marshall Murphy said the company supports a bill to suspend the authority’s review of all sites except for the nuclear plant’s.

Reviews of the other sites could resume if the atomic plant’s site failed to meet all state and federal health and environmental standards.

Any site finally picked by the authority must be approved by state and federal regulatory officials, the Legislature and 60 percent of the host community’s voters.

Federal law requires the states to make arrangements for the disposal of low-level radioactive waste, which includes filters, clothing, tools and other material contaminated by radiation. It does not include spent nuclear fuel.