Shelter Island Reporter Letters to the Editor

Party politics
To the Editor:
It’s curious that Supervisor Jim Dougherty, in the Reporter article last week (“A world apart on issues,” September 10), comparing our positions on a range of issues, said that “after the election, there are no more Democrats or Republicans, just Shelter Islanders.”

It is my view that we are Shelter Islanders all of the time.

Certainly, not all Shelter Islanders agree on local matters. But, are there Republican or Democratic views on whether to maintain low real estate taxes, treat Lyme disease as a serious public health crisis, or maintain the quality of our aquifer and surrounding waters?

Non-partisan issues like these need to be discussed before the election. I suppose for some, maybe this election is just about big party politics.
ART WILLIAMS
Mr. Williams is the Republican candidate for supervisor.

Not prepared
To the Editor:
Last week’s Karl Grossman’s column (“Change of nuke regs reveals risks, September 10”) about the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC), “radiation hormesis” initiative is important to the nation, and in particular, to Shelter Island and Suffolk County.

The Environmental Protection Agency states that the maximum annual dose of radiation for people is no more than 25 mrem. The NRC disagrees and maintains that an annual dose of 100 mrem is fine.

Now, the NRC is ready to lower the standards again by deciding that chronic low level ionizing radiation is actually good for humans. An ongoing study of cancer around the Millstone nuclear power plant in Connecticut was abruptly cancelled by the NRC this month.

The “radiation hormesis” theory is also contrary to the Centers of Disease Control and the American Cancer Society (ACS). Last year, the ACS determined that the cumulative effect of low level radiation is a carcinogen. They recommend that people limit the amount of X-ray and PET/CT scan radiation that they receive over their lifetime. This is the same type of ionizing radiation that is discharged into the air each month by Millstone.

We are less than 20 miles from the Millstone nuclear plant. Shelter Island is within the 50-mile Emergency Planning Zone (EPZ), or “ingestion pathway” of Millstone. We should be included in the “New York State Radiological Emergency Preparedness Plan” as other counties are.

This would provide monitoring of groundwater, soil, milk and food. Immediate notification is then provided to local governments and the public. Drills are performed every few years.

Because of the efforts of Police Chief Jim Read, we are well represented in the “Suffolk County Hazard Mitigation Plan.” But this plan does not include radiological emergencies.
The county’s departments of health and FRES and a former head of FEMA, James L. Witt, all agree that we should have a radiological emergency plan in Suffolk, but don’t.

Millstone was named as one of the most vulnerable terrorist targets in a 2013 study. Their aging nuclear reactors have had numerous operational “near misses” and are now under extra scrutiny by the NRC.

Last October, a much larger than planned for release of radiation into the atmosphere happened during a refueling “outage” at Millstone. The Millstone radiation monitors happened to be out of service at the time.

There is another refueling “outage” scheduled at Millstone next month. With any luck, there will not be another excessive radioactive release. We are not prepared for it, but we should be.
VINCENT NOVAK
Shelter Island