Cooling Systems Ravage River, Activists Say

Big industrial sites on the Delaware kill tens of billions of fish, crabs each year

Jeff Montgomery
The News Journal
01/14/2007

A few industrial sites with cooling systems that draw water from the Delaware River are killing tens of billions of fish, fry and crabs each year, making them, by some accounts, the biggest predators in the river.

Now five of the largest water users are up for state permit renewals, giving regulators and environmental groups the chance for a public debate over industrial cooling-water demands.

The giant intakes continuously pump in and discharge river water to cool equipment and systems, sucking trillions of gallons from stretches of the Delaware that include nurseries and feeding grounds for some of the region's most popular and valuable aquatic life, including striped bass and weakfish.

"The river and bay simply cannot sustain this kind of day-in and day-out destruction," said Tracy Carluccio, a staff member for the Delaware Riverkeeper Network.

Carluccio's group last year joined several others in suing the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to control damage from some cooling water intakes. The lawsuit, along with alarming research, has put the issue in the spotlight just as several of the plants come up for new permits.

Some of the fish are trapped on the intake screens, others are descaled. The ones that are pulled through the screens are killed by heat or torn apart by the sheer force of the water.

The deaths caused by the intakes threaten the entire river and bay ecosystem, environmental groups say, and result in tens of millions of dollars in economic losses.

The intakes at the Salem nuclear power complex, Conectiv's Edge Moor power plant, the Delaware City refinery and Conectiv's Deepwater, N.J., plant destroy roughly 607 million year-old fish annually -- a federal estimate based on industry reports that some experts say might be too low. If fish eggs, larvae and other organisms are added, the number lost rises to tens of billions.

At the river's four largest power plants, annual economic damages are estimated at $49 million, mostly commercial and recreational fishing losses, according to one Environmental Protection Agency study.

"The final estimates may well underestimate the full ecological and economic value of these losses," an EPA research office reported in 2002.

The best alternatives to intakes are massive water-cooling towers, which could dramatically reduce the number of fish killed. But installing the towers would cost hundreds of millions of dollars, which could be passed on to customers.

Conectiv's Edge Moor plant draws water from a section of the river near the Cherry Island "flats," a spawning area for striped bass. Financial losses to commercial and recreational fishing due to the kills at Edge Moor were estimated by the federal government at $12.5 million a year.

In Delaware City, the Valero refinery has rendered the entire population of bay anchovies vulnerable, according to a 2001 study. Anchovies are an important food source for many other creatures in the river and bay.

"There hasn't really been a significant change to the intake system at the refinery, I don't believe, since the mid-60s at least," said Roy Miller, who directs state fish and shellfish programs. "It's high time."

In 2002, the EPA estimated that the refinery intakes destroy 775,879 pounds of weakfish annually. Only 16,892 pounds of the popular sport fish are taken by recreational fishing.

A DNREC consultant estimated in 2001 that the refinery killed nearly 40,000 striped bass in a single year, double the number caught from fishing. Counting egg and larval losses, the EPA estimated the same refinery cost the river 662,871 pounds of striped bass, more than four times the number taken by rod and reel or net in 2003.

Federal officials estimated fish losses at the Delaware City refinery at $5.8 million annually.

The Delaware City refinery combined with the Salem nuclear plant could kill 34 percent of the bay's anchovy populations each year and as much as 23 percent of the river's weakfish, or sea trout, according to the DNREC consultant's report from 2001.

Details obscured

For decades, the cooling water carnage went on with little notice, obscured in part by huge backlogs in state permit reviews. Most debate flared during the permit reviews carried out for Salem. But few details were available on other large intakes.

"These are hidden, stealth fish kills that take place underwater, out of sight, out of mind," said Maya K. van Rossum, who directs the Delaware Riverkeeper Network. "That's why they're allowed to happen. It changes the whole dynamic of the ecosystem. It changes the whole food chain."

But now, with public pressure growing, regulators are leaning on the plants' operators to change their practices and consider alternatives to the intake water cooling systems.

EPA water resources director Evelyn McKnight said last week her agency has targeted Conectiv's plant and Valero's refinery for renewal of long outdated permits. That permitting process is carried out by the states. During the renewal process for Valero and Conectiv, Delaware regulators said they will push the companies to consider installing cooling water supply systems, which could cost millions.

Those radiator-like cooling towers recycle and reuse water, drastically reducing the number of fish that are killed.

For example, the nuclear reactor at Hope Creek, near the Salem units, already uses a cooling tower. It kills 12 million juvenile fish each year. Salem, which draws from the river, kills 354 million a year.

Tim Dillingham, who directs the American Littoral Society, a conservation group, said state regulators need to press industry to invest in that technology.

"Industry almost across the board has blatantly denied that they're having any impact, which common sense tells us is just not right," Dillingham said. "This really is a case where the industries are using sticks-and-stones kind of technology, and they're asking for a pass. They're saying 'We don't want to be brought into the 21st century in terms of reducing our environmental impact.' "

DNREC Secretary John Hughes said his agency has urged both Valero and Conectiv to consider cooling-water systems that spare more fish.

"We've got a strong argument. I've made the argument personally at the highest levels with Valero that ... they need to look at cooling water as a major investment issue," Hughes said. He added that talks with the refinery have been hampered by repeated ownership and management changes at the complex.

Federal rules allow companies to avoid upgrading their cooling systems if they can prove the changes are too costly.

Valero officials could not be reached for comment on the company's plans.

For the Salem plant, negotiations are more protracted. There, New Jersey regulators are waiting to reissue permits for Salem's intakes until a fight at the nearby Oyster Creek nuclear plant is resolved.

At Oyster Creek, which draws water from a Delaware River tributary, Barnegat Bay, state regulators, the Environmental Protection Agency and National Marine Fisheries Commission all have recommended cooling towers.

Could set precedent

Oyster Creek's owner, AmerGen, has opposed the cooling tower demand, arguing that the project could cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

"I think what happens at Oyster Creek will tell a lot about what will happen at Salem," said Norm Cohen, who directs Unplug Salem, a group that follows PSEG Nuclear's operations closely.

Construction of a new cooling tower at Salem, PSEG Nuclear cautioned, could cost $852 million and force prolonged shutdowns at what is now the nation's second-largest nuclear complex.

In the company's application to New Jersey's environmental agency, Salem's owners said the operation has caused "no substantial harm to fisheries."

In lieu of a change to its cooling system, PSEG has restored habitat on thousands of acres of wetlands that it said would offset fish losses at its plant.

The company has financed fish "ladders" to help spawning fish bypass dams around the region as well as improvements in systems that scare fish away from its intakes.

"It was just a buyout," said William "Frenchie" Poulin, a Kent County commercial fisherman and Bowers Beach mayor. "It was just a drop in the bucket to them."

But Miller, fisheries program manager for DNREC, said that PSEG restored tidal flows to thousands of acres of wetlands.

"Did it compensate for what they're killing up at Salem?" Miller asked. "They hired some of the top scientists in the world who claim it compensated."

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007701140362