Welcome to the Ecology Party Website
Because we are small, the Ecology Party decided to focus on the environmental issues concerning two new nuclear reactors proposed for a greenfield site in rural Levy County. We have been accepted as an Intervener by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and are two years into the process and as a result we have been consumed by the Levy Nuclear Plant with no energy and time left over for party-building activities.
Please take a look around the rest of our website and if our focus resonates with you, register with your local supervisor of elections as an Ecology Party member and let others know about us. If you would like to know more about the Ecology Party, or join us, please sign up for our periodic announcements, or contact the State Executive Committee at the address and phone number at the bottom of this page.
We Need Your Help
April 11, 2012
The Ecology Party desperately needs your help to fight two new nuclear reactors slated for rural Florida. The Ecology Party of Florida (www.ecologyparty.org) and Nuclear Information and Resource Service (www.nirs.org) have been successfully fighting two Progress Energy reactors slated for rural and economically depressed Levy County for 3 years.
Our contention asserts that construction and operation of these reactors will cause substantial and irreversible harm to the local environment including wetlands, surface water, and the critical Floridan aquifer that provides drinking water for everyone living in this part of Florida. Our hydroecological contention admitted by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) is the broadest environmental contention ever admitted. Now we need money to pay experts to testify to support our case.
Primarily, our contention addresses the impact of using 1.58 MILLION gallons per day from the aquifer (or up to 5.8 MILLION, for short periods), as well as drawing so much water from the Cross Florida Barge Canal (CFBC), that it would become as salty as the ocean. The impacts include but aren’t limited to:
1. Destruction of wetlands by depleting the aquifer in the area and altering historic sheet-flow. Levy is in an area of karst, a porous geologic formation that magnifies the impact of dewatering.
2. Reducing or eliminating the natural springs in the area, including the Big King and Little King springs. Many of these springs appear near the CFBC, and provide fresh water necessary for manatees who use the canal.
3. Salt drift caused by using salt water to cool the reactor. It is impossible to remove all the salt from the cooling water, and the resulting plume of salty vapor will harm the local vegetation.
4. Changing the salinity of the estuary surrounding the CFBC at the Gulf of Mexico. By drawing 80 million gallons per day from the CFBC, Progress will draw seawater 9 miles inland all the way up to the reactor site. This would obviously stop all the fresh water that now goes to the Gulf, and would cause permanent harm to the brackish habitat.
5. Ignoring the effect of climate change, which, according to NRC documents, will result in drier conditions in Levy County, making the effects of dewatering even more harmful.
Progress Energy has announced delays in the construction and activation of the Levy nukes, but is still pursuing Federal licensing good for 40 years. If we can prove the disastrous results of building and operating this facility, we may be able to stop them, thereby saving the precious waters of the Nature Coast and the life that depends upon them. In addition, this could save Progress ratepayers BILLIONS of dollars to required by the early nuclear cost recovery program. The final hearing on this issue is set for October/ November 2012.
PLEASE consider a donation to aid us in this fight. For a tax deductible donation, please make cheques out to NIRS, mark in the memo as “Levy Intervention” and mail to:
Ecology Party of Florida
641 SW 6th Ave
Ft Lauderdale, FL 33315
You may make the cheque to the Ecology Party if you don’t care about it being tax-deductible. If you have questions, please contact Cara Campbell, Chair, Ecology Party of Florida, at 954-525-4522 chair@ecologyparty.org
Levy County (1 & 2) Nuclear License Intervention Expected Expenses 2012, final year
Expert Witnesses
Hydroecology
Written work $3,000
Hearing $2,000
Geology
Written work $3,000
Hearing $1,000
Hydrology/Modeling
Written work already paid
Hearing $1,000
Biologist Endangered Species
Written work $2000
Hearing $1000
Climatologist
Written work $2000
Hearing $1000
Experts prior to Fall Hearing:$10,000
Experts at Oral Arguments: $5,000 (plus travel- see below)
Most Legal consultation has been donated in full
Specialist legal consultation for pro se work prior to hearing@$200 per hour
$1,000
NIRS Staff Time for Balance of Case
Average 1/4 time + minimal overhead March -- October $ 9,400
Travel Expenses for Autumn Hearing (Two nights in Levy County area)
$600 per expert (4) $2,400
$200 per intervener (2 or 3) $600
$600 per attorney (1) if representation is chosen $600
Travel Total $3,600
Legal Representation- To date this case has been pro se, fought by non-lawyer members of the Ecology Party of Florida and NIRS, thus saving thousands of dollars in attorney's fees. With sufficient monetary support, it would make sense, as we enter the evidentiary hearing phase, to retain an experienced attorney to take over the final push. Estimates for the real pros are $200 to $250 an hour. A top attorney has offered to cut fees in half, with a cap at 200 hours, putting full representation leading to and at the hearing in the range of $25,000. NIRS and the Ecology Party have achieved remarkable success on a shoestring budget. But as we all know, in a courtroom, the availability of experts and great representation can make the difference between JUSTICE and the LAW.
Thank you for your consideration. Any money you donate will give us more time to spend on the fight rather than on fundraising. Without your help to fund experts, our two organizations simply do not have the required resources to mount a winning argument. This is your fight too, for we all live downwind!
No GMO Petition
The Ecology Party encourages you to sign the NO GMO petition.
January 12, 2012
Public MeetingsThe Atomic Safety and Licensing Board is holding public meetings on the proposed Levy plant. As reported at Ocala.com, “The challenge (to the nuclear plant proposal) is that construction and the operation of the nuclear plant would be detrimental ... devastating to the environment around Levy County,” said Cara Campbell of the Ecology Party of Florida, one of the organizations that filed a challenge with the ASLB." The entire article can be read at Ocala.com.
A recent Synapse Energy Economics report, "Bigger Risks, Better Alternatives: An Examination of Two Nuclear Energy Projects in the U.S,"can be downloaded here. The report was prepared for Union of Concerned Scientists; it evaluates the economics of nuclear at the Levy and Vogtle (in GA) sites and has great data on how efficiency and renewables can negate any need for nuclear power. The report gives specific figures for both Florida and Georgia.
This article in Living Green online magazine is an overview of that report.
From Sunshine News, Kenric Ward's Blog, August 3, 2011
Cara Campbell, chair of the Florida Ecology Party an unstinting critic of both the nuclear-power industry and what she calls "captive regulators" at the NRC, says, "The only thing that is preventing a Fukushima-level disaster in this country is luck -- dumb luck."
"We have to remember that it was not the earthquake but the flooding that caused the problems at Fukushima by inundating the generators and fuel and precluding cooling.
"South Floridians are only lucky Hurricane Andrew didn't come ashore a bit farther north and cause the same sort of disaster at Turkey Point," she said.
Campbell said America's aging nuclear plants "were designed to last about 30 to 40 years, but are routinely allowed to operate 60 years. No doubt, the NRC will license them for longer if the industry screams at losing money by shutting down.
"Do we want to trust the nuclear industry's and the government's assurances the way the people of Japan misplaced their trust?" she asks.
Read the whole article on the Sunshine News blog. Kenric Ward, Japan Syndrome: NRC on Hot Seat Over Nuclear Plant Safety, August 3, 2011.
Phosphate Mining Exposé
The Ecology Party of Florida has uncovered a major conflict of interest with an Army Corps of Engineers contractor investigating the impacts of phosphate mining in Florida. Read the Ecology Party's press release here, followed by a link to Florida media coverage of this exposé.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
April 29, 2011
Conflict of Interest Discovered for Army Corps of Engineers' Phosphate Mining Areawide Environmental Impact Statement Contractor:
The Ecology Party of Florida has discovered a direct conflict of interest with CH2M Hill, the engineering firm awarded the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Army Corps) contract for preparing the Areawide Environmental Impact Statement (AEIS) on phosphate mining. The AEIS is supposed to determine all of the direct, indirect and cumulative impacts of phosphate mining in Florida, including groundwater pirated from the Everglades watershed by the phosphate mining companies.
One of the adverse impacts of phosphate mining is that a hazardous form of fluoride is produced as one of the mining by-products. Instead of properly disposing of this hazardous waste, phosphate mining companies such as Mosaic, one of the companies with mines being evaluated under the AEIS, "dispose" of the hazardous fluoride by selling it to be dumped into municipal water systems throughout the US as fluoridation of our tap water.
"While preparing comments for the Army Corps' initial public comment period regarding issues to be addressed in the AEIS we discovered that the Army privatized its water and wastewater systems at Fort Campbell, Kentucky in 2007 in a 50-year deal with CH2M Hill. In that deal CH2M Hill produces fluoridated water for the Army's 101st Airborne Division and any other military personnel at Fort Campbell," says Cara Campbell, Chair of the Ecology Party of Florida.
"That arrangement means CH2M Hill is using the Army as a lucrative market for the hazardous fluoride produced by the mining companies that the Army Corps hired CH2M Hill to evaluate in the AEIS," Campbell explained. "If that sounds convoluted, that's because it is, and in our opinion, that conflict of interest makes it impossible for CH2M Hill to produce an unbiased AEIS. Therefore, we have requested that the Army Corps select another contractor to administer the AEIS," says Campbell.
Ecology Party Treasurer Gary Hecker adds, "In addition to that conflict of interest, CH2M Hill also is the contractor for water utilities in Florida, like the City of Cocoa, that fluoridate municipal water, then dispose of that fluoridated water into our streams, lakes and coastal waters or inject it into our aquifer. CH2M Hill, for example, was contracted by Miami-Dade to inject fluoridated sewage effluent into the aquifer. The corporation also has been awarded contracts for designing, modeling, constructing and/or monitoring engineered approaches marketed as "alternative" water supplies such as "aquifer storage and recovery" (ASR) and excavated pits known as "reservoirs" in areas of Florida where natural water resources have been depleted or contaminated by mining, such as the Tampa Bay area "reservoir" which is located in the phosphate mining area. Clearly these additional conflicts further underscore the impossibility of having such a company evaluate mining impacts in an unbiased way."
Information regarding the AEIS for phosphate mining is posted at:
www.PhosphateAEIS.org
Press Inquiries: Cara Campbell (954-525-4522) – chair@ecologyparty.org
Note: The Bradenton Times picked up this news release.
Nuclear Apocalypse
The Ecology Party is horrified by the events in Japan and we have been responding to reporters who are finally taking an interest in our opposition to the proposed Levy nukes and to nuclear power/weapons/radiation in general. What has happened in Japan is our worst nightmare come to pass but we cannot say we are shocked. Nuclear plants can be engineered to the nth degree but it will always be impossible to control nature, human error and the myriad of unknowable things that can go wrong. When something does go wrong with nuclear the potential and real outcomes are just too terrible and the effects too long-lasting. Fallout and radiation releases don't stay localized. What gives any country the right to endanger the health of the entire globe and all its inhabitants?
We are in touch with organizations around the world where leaders have acted far more responsibly than our own. It's time to call for a global moratorium on nuclear power!
Below are some of the best sources for up to date and honest information, not the propaganda being disseminated by the stakeholders in nuclear power, which include the NRC, the power companies, most nuclear physicists, the Energy Secretary and the President, who has long been in thrall to the nuclear industry and STILL wants to give them 56 billion of our tax dollars!
Here is a wonderful article, perhaps the best of hundreds we've read, on the Japanese tragedy:
NUCLEAR APOCALYPSE IN JAPAN
LIFTING THE VEIL OF NUCLEAR CATASTROPHE AND COVER-UP
A Doomsday Scenario Unfolds With Characteristic Foolishness by Keith Harmon Snow
Please see these for breaking information and general nuke info:
http://www.llrc.org/ (Information on low level radiation from coming fallout)
http://www.cnic.jp/english/ - (Citizens' Nuclear Information Center-Japan)
http://www.epa.gov/narel/radnet/(Radiation monitoring in the US)
Fox Tampa Bay covers Ecology Party against nukes
Recent news story mentions the Ecology Party: Michael Sasso, Japan's Nuclear Tragedy Turns Eyes To Florida's Industry, The Tampa Tribune website, March 14, 201
Our newest press release - another legal victory - is dated Feb. 7 2011. See all press releases here.
If you would like to know more about the Ecology Party, or join us, please contact the State Executive Committee at the address and phone number below.
641 SW 6th Avenue
Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33315
chair at ecologyparty dot org
888 462-2468
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