No Permit to Pollute! Hold DTE Accountable
Hello Community!
 
We hope you are all hanging in there and staying safe out there. In addition to our monthly newsletter, we are writing to you with a time-sensitive action to protect our waters and our communities.
 
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) has issued a draft permit for the Fermi 2 reactor to use and abuse Lake Erie water.
 
This proposed permit:
 
  • Lists pages of dangerous and carcinogenic chemicals Fermi is discharging into Lake Erie, and gives DTE until 2028 to stop this devastating pollution.
  • Gives no limits on thermal pollution, allowing Fermi to continue to heat Lake Erie and contribute to toxic algae blooms.
  • Does not have the EGLE using its authority to adequately test or regulate the radioactive elements (radionuclides) that can pollute drinking water around Fermi 2 and threaten our safety.
 
The communities around Fermi 2 and Lake Erie cannot afford 5 years of dangerous chemicals and thermal pollution while DTE and EGLE do nothing about it. DTE must be held accountable!
 
Please join CRAFT in calling for a public hearing on this issue. We cannot wait 5 years for DTE to clean up their act. CRAFT has penned a public comment to DTE and EGLE: follow this link to add your signature to our open letter and say NO to this permit to pollute.
You can also submit your own comment on the issue. Click the button below to submit a comment directly to EGLE and voice your opposition to this permit to pollute. We have included a list of key points on our website you can include when writing your comment.
Thank you for supporting us and the wellness of our Great Lakes. Here are some highlights from this month's newsletter:
 
  • The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has authorized the demonstration of the production of "high-assay low-enriched uranium" known as HALEU. The plan for HALEU is to be used as fuel in advanced nuclear reactors being sold internationally. Michael Keegan points out that HALEU is "90 percent of the way to being nuclear bomb material"...so is it fuel or something worse that we are exporting?
     
  • The Palisades Nuclear Power Plant aka the "Zombie Reactor" is still trying to be revived by Holtec International. The reactor was shut down because it was too dangerous and too expensive to operate, but Holtec is pursuing a $1 billion dollar loan from the Department of Energy to revive Palisades.
Read about these topics and more in the Newsletter that our own Jessie Collins very thoughtfully researches and curates every month for our benefit.
 
If you haven't already, check out the final chapter in the Building Bridges blog series! Our community organizer, Jesse Deer In Water, has published the fifth installment of his blog series on Building Bridges: Native Existence, Resistance, and Nuclear Abolition Position! You can read the whole series on our website.
 
 
 
Heart of Dinetah, Tahchee Blue Gap and Solutions
Building Bridges Pt. 5
 
The day with Petuuchhe was going to be a big one. He is a leader in his community and of many long-standing groups that protect the lands, build movements to resist further colonization, and strengthen relationships between people in the mix. We were going to pick him up at his home there on the Acoma rez and then do a big circle seeing a few big mine sites then Kaawheeshtimaa (Mt. Taylor). Mt Taylor is considered sacred ground by the Dine and The Pueblo people and it has felt the impacts of mining, its uranium included. Also it is the southernmost sacred mountain for the Dine called Dootliizhii Dziil (Turquoise Mountain). We had planned to take a couple hours once we were up on the mountain to do a little strategy work around the indigenous part of the nuclear abolition and the support network we are weaving together. This was the plan, it worked out far better than what we planned for.
 
 
Thank you all so much, here is to a safe and just energy future.
 
Peace and Safety,
 
The CRAFT Team
Citizen's Resistance At Fermi Two (CRAFT) is an Indigenous-led, grassroots, organization, committed to an accessible, fair, and just energy future for all! CRAFT originally formed after the Christmas Day 1993 incident at the Fermi2 nuclear reactor that dumped 1.5 million gallons of untreated toxic, radioactive water into Lake Erie. We will continue to push for the closing of Fermi2, and for a safer world powered by renewables.
Submitted by admin on Tue, 10/03/2023 - 02:27