While Cattaraugus County, N.Y., home of the West Valley Demonstration Project, experienced a cold and snowy weekend, it seems to have avoided the worst of the mega-storm that dumped several feet of snow 35 miles to the north in Buffalo, N.Y.
“The site is in a two-hour delay, to allow employees who live away from the site ample time to safely commute into work,” a spokesperson for Department of Energy contractor CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley said in a Monday email to Exchange Monitor.
Online weather forecasts indicate Ashford N.Y., and Cattaraugus County, N.Y., received several inches of snow over the weekend with up to four more inches of “lake effect” snow expected Sunday.
“West Valley received most of the snow overnight Saturday,” Ashford town supervisor John Pfeffer wrote in an email response Sunday to an Exchange Monitor inquiry. “I do not know if operations were suspended, but if they were, likely due to road closures and employees not making it in.”
A West Valley spokesperson said Friday it appeared the storm would skirt the area around the nuclear cleanup site.
The National Weather Service forecast a high of 24 degrees Sunday and 36 degrees on Monday for West Valley with gusty winds on both days, with additional snow accumulations of two inches.
The Buffalo area, however, is recovering from roughly six feet of snow between Friday and Sunday which, among other things, forced the National Football League’s Buffalo Bills to relocate a home game to Detroit.
