How community action overcame a would-be polluter of Cape Cod Bay

Last month, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) rejected Holtec International’s request for a permit to dump more than 1 million gallons of radioactively and chemically contaminated wastewater from Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station into Cape Cod Bay.

This decision safeguards the health, environment and marine-based economy of hundreds of thousands of town residents impacted by Pilgrim’s discharge into Cape Cod Bay, from Provincetown to Scituate and beyond, to Stellwagen Bank.

Save Our Bay MA, a coalition of local business leaders, fishermen, indigenous voices, environmental advocates and more, came together to put a stop to this toxic wastewater dumping. First, our friends at Pilgrim Watch identified a state law, the Ocean Sanctuaries Act, which prohibits such discharges. Cape Downwinders organized citizens and elected officials on Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard.  Then—with support from Community Action Works, The Public Interest Network’s team that helps grassroots groups organize to address environmental threats in their own backyards—the coalition rallied the public to convince MassDEP to enforce the law.

Founded in 1987 as the Massachusetts Campaign to Clean Up Hazardous Waste and later known as Toxics Action Center, Community Action Works has provided training and organizing assistance to more than 20,000 people across 1,000 communities and counting.

Those who’ve been assisted include Claudia Saball and her group, Concerned Citizens Against Contamination, which brought clean water back to Groton, Mass., back in 1989, when high levels of trichloroethylene (TCE) were linked to an epidemic of developmental disorders in children living along Gratuity Road. More recently, Community Action Works supported Pauline Rodrigues and her fellow leaders of Coalition for Clean Air South Coast in their 2017 effort to responsibly retire one of Massachusetts’ “Filthy Five” coal plants, Brayton Point.

In all these examples, including this latest progress for Massachusetts communities, protecting people’s health and the environment required a full-fledged grassroots education campaign, followed by sustained public engagement. Last year, for instance, concerned Cape Cod and South Shore residents and groups delivered thousands of public comments to MassDEP, the vast majority of which urged the agency to finalize its tentative decision to reject the radioactive wastewater dumping permit.

Community Action Works specializes in providing the tools, resources and know-how to help local groups all across the country to execute efforts like these, whether through our online library of issue explainers, trainings, campaign plans and case studies; online and in-person trainings and consultations; emergency grants; and more.

In June, Community Action Works convened our first in-person Grassroots Organizing Summit since the pandemic to help New England environmental activists meet each other, learn about the issues and challenges their neighbors are facing, and get help organizing their communities via workshops and trainings with experienced changemakers.

At the event, we were pleased to recognize Pilgrim Watch and Save Our Bay MA’s Mary Lampert with our Legacy Award, in appreciation of her decades of work protecting Bay-area communities from nuclear waste contamination.

Unacceptable as it is in 2024, there’s no shortage of communities dealing with health impacts from polluting power plants and incinerators, leaking pipelines and landfills, harmful practices such as the wanton spraying of pesticides, and more. Indeed, Save Our Bay MA’s fight will continue, whether or not Holtec International appeals MassDEP’s decision, until there’s an end to the forced evaporation of radioactive wastewater taking place at the decommissioning nuclear plant.

Thankfully, there’s also no shortage of community leaders-in-waiting, ready to rise to these challenges and become the next Mary Lampert. The Community Action Works team, led by Leigh-Anne Cole, is humbled to support these tenacious, inspiring local activists in their vital work to keep their neighborhoods healthy and safe.

Thank you to MassDEP. Congratulations to Save the Bay MA, and if you are interested in finding out more or supporting this coalition’s work, please contact Mary. Lastly, if you know of a group anywhere in the U.S. that could use organizing assistance to confront a local environmental threat, Community Action Works’ help lines are always open.