TARRYTOWN – Riverkeeper has petitioned the state Department of Environmental Conservation urging the agency to uphold its decision not to grant certification to Entergy on the grounds that its Indian Point nuclear power plant does not meet state water quality standards.

Entergy needs that certification as part of its application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to renew the plant’s licenses for another 20 years.

Riverkeeper’s petition supports DEC’s decision that continued operation of the power plant would violate state clean water standards and continued use of the once-through cooling system would lead to ongoing harmful impacts to the Hudson River’s ecology and aquatic species, said staff attorney Deborah Brancato.

“In our petition to intervene in this proceeding, we support all those basis that DEC based their decision on and we further cited some additional reasons including the radioactive leaks to the Hudson River and the groundwater that have been a problem at Indian Point for some time now and that those leaks are inconsistent with state water quality standards,” she said.

The DEC would like Entergy to build very tall cooling towers instead of the once-through system, but Entergy says that would be far more expensive, take some 15 years to build and obstruct the viewshed.

Scenic Hudson and Natural Resources Defense Council joined Riverkeeper in their petition to the DEC.