Ohio Coal Plant spews 650 mil gal of heated water into Lake Erie each day

Ohio Coal Plant Linked to $30m in Annual Economic Damage
http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/06/03/ohio-coal-plant-linked-to-30m-in-annual-economic-damage/


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The Bay Shore facility lacks cooling towers, which means that every day it has to draw over 650 million gallons of fresh water. In the summertime, that requires the plant to suck in the entire Maumee River! The water is then spit back into Lake Erie, 5-12 degrees Fahrenheit warmer, and with 126,000 fewer fish every day. This destroys fish populations in Lake Erie that would otherwise be used by Ohioans for recreation or commercial sale.

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“We now know that the estimated $100 million cost of installing cooling towers is economically justified by the annual $29.7 million economic loss from the fish kills,” said Sandy Bihn, a member of the Oregon City Council and Executive Director of the Western Lake Erie Waterkeeper Association.

“Ohio’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) needs to require Bay Shore to install cooling towers to reduce the millions of fish – and billions of larval fish – killed each year.”

This report also comes as the Ohio EPA reviews its draft of a wastewater discharge renewal permit for the Bay Shore facility – which we are urging them to reject.

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It’s not just a problem of fish – though that would be bad enough. The Bay Shore plant, along with three other FirstEnergy-owned plants along the shore of Lake Erie, is also under a Notice of Violation from the United States Environmental Protection Agency for alleged violations of the Clean Air Act. Bay Shore has no modern pollution controls and contributes to Ohio’s chronic conditions of poor air quality, through heavy emissions of dangerous soot, smog and mercury.

We all know that coal and nuclear power plants use a lot of water, but to see it graphed out like that is an eye opener.

Thanks

FISH ARE A FOOD SOURCE FOR US.

So, any chance of building those cooling towers in this century?

Our children are going to hate us for what we did.

http://www.njbiz.com/article-multiple/80877-exelon-warns-of-possible-oyster-creek-plant-shutdown

The plant currently discharges wastewater to a canal that leads to tributaries of Barnegat Bay. Benson said Gov. Chris Christie and acting DEP Commissioner Bob Martin asked stakeholders at Barnegat Bay to discuss the power station’s environmental impact, which Exelon said it supports.

DEP spokesperson Elaine Makatura said the permit process would take at least one year before a final decision is made. She said a public comment period closed Monday, and the state agency is reviewing the gathered statements. “The next step is to evaluate the hundreds of comments we got, put something in writing and make a recommendation,” she said.

Organizations and private firms in favor of the cooling towers said the price tag Exelon bemoans is far higher than their estimates. Bill Powers, principal of Powers Engineering Inc., in San Diego, issued a letter Monday to the Bureau of Surface Water Permitting citing a much lower cost estimate for construction of the cooling towers. Powers said in the letter the cooling towers could be installed at capital cost of less than $200 million. Powers commented on behalf of the Eastern Environmental Law Center.

Powers said in the letter that installation of cooling towers would reduce intake and discharge of water at the Oyster Creek station by more than 98 percent. He also stated construction of the towers could create from 100 to 250 construction jobs during the two-year construction phase, and add some 65 permanent jobs related to the cooling towers.

http://www.cleanoceanaction.org/index.php?id=323

The current cooling system, a “once-through cooling system,” removes, on average, 1.3 billion gallons of life-rich estuarine waters from Barnegat Bay EACH DAY, close to 600 million gallons of which is then discharged as chlorinated, heated, lifeless water. The remaining 732 million gallons a day of estuarine water is mixed with this chlorinated, heated water.
NJDEP’s “Preferred Alternative” - Alternative # 1 - requiring a closed-cycle cooling system is the best alternative as it is the “best available technology.” (NJDEP issued a draft New Jersey Pollution Discharge Elimination System or NJPDES permit renewal.)

Are there any provisions in NAFTA that allow us to SUE for loss of wildlife? Because I think we should if this shit is going on.