Keeping your community covered. We're committed to producing high-quality, fact-based news and information that gives you the facts in this community we call home. If our work has helped you stay informed, take action, or feel more connected to Windham County – please give now to help us reach our goal of raising $150,000 by December 31st.
Keeping your community covered. We're committed to producing high-quality, fact-based news and information that gives you the facts in this community we call home. If our work has helped you stay informed, take action, or feel more connected to Windham County – please give now to help us reach our goal of raising $150,000 by December 31st.
Several times a week, a tanker truck leaves Vermont Yankee carrying 5,000 gallons of tritium-tainted groundwater.
But there may be a more convenient - and likely, more controversial - disposal option in the works: Entergy administrators and state officials have begun discussing the idea of discharging the contaminated liquid into the nearby Connecticut River.
Those discussions came to light during a June 23 meeting of the Vermont Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Committee (VNDCAP).
Officials on both sides of the talks were quick to characterize them as preliminary, and they said further analysis of the plant's groundwater is necessary to determine whether the discharge idea is feasible.
The developer of the proposed Stiles Brook Wind Project is reaffirming a commitment to stop work if a majority of voters in Windham and Grafton oppose the initiative later this year. But Iberdrola Renewables, in a mailer sent to residents last week, also announced that such a vote cannot...
Mount Snow Resort administrators aren't the only ones irked by the federal government's backlogged EB-5 program. A Florida man who sank $500,000 into the Dover resort's foreign-investment-driven expansion project has filed suit against several federal officials, alleging a “continuing and inexcusable delay” in review of his associated visa application.
A few months ago, the Windham Regional Commission asked officials in a dozen towns what they thought of the state possibly buying TransCanada properties along the Connecticut and Deerfield rivers. Responses varied, but one concern - a potential loss of critical tax revenue from the properties due to state ownership - rose to the top of the list. Vernon's response said any tax hit would be “just plain cruel” in light of the recent closure of Vermont Yankee. So last...
When Jack Boyle arrived at Vermont Yankee in December 2012 to take the engineering director's job, he believed the Vernon nuclear plant would be operating for years to come. Just nine months later, though, Entergy announced that the facility would cease producing power at the end of 2014. And now, 17 months after shutdown, Boyle has become Vermont Yankee's top administrator - the man in charge of the site's challenging decommissioning process. The 40-year industry veteran acknowledges that post-shutdown operations...
At a lieutenant governor candidate forum here June 14, an audience member submitted an index card featuring a pointed question: “With all due respect, why should we care?” The three Democrats seeking Vermont's second-in-command administrative job did their best to make their case for the office's relevance, and for their plans to personalize and transform the position. Their ideas differ in some respects. But Kesha Ram, Shap Smith and Dave Zuckerman each talked about the lieutenant governor becoming some combination...
Eagle Creek Renewable Energy has traveled a “long road” to get two hydroelectric generation projects up and running in Windham County, a top administrator acknowledges. The New Jersey-based company finally has reached the end of that road, as newly installed turbines at Ball Mountain Dam in Jamaica and Townshend Dam are now operational. Crews remain on site to handle a few final details, but the projects have been successfully tested and have met state commissioning deadlines, Eagle Creek Chief Executive...
Time constraints, regulatory issues, and competitive pressures will make it “extremely difficult” for Vermont to independently submit a purchase bid for TransCanada's hydroelectric stations on the Connecticut and Deerfield rivers, a new document says. The Department of Public Service memo details several options by which the state still might partner with another entity or entities and “acquire some beneficial interest” in the dams. In fact, the memo - penned by Regional Policy Director Ed McNamara - says four companies already...
