The Associated Press, By Mary Esch

Power plants that suck millions of gallons of water daily out of New York rivers and lakes would have to switch to costly fish-friendly cooling towers under new rules proposed by the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

In draft regulations proposed Wednesday, the agency said industrial plants take more than 16 billion gallons of water daily from New York waterways for cooling, killing more than 17 billion fish and their eggs annually. Steam electric power plants account for most of the damage, with some plants using well over a billion gallons of water daily for cooling purposes, the department said.

With commonly used “once-through” cooling technology, creatures are killed when they’re sucked into water intakes, trapped against screens or overheated in the warm water that’s returned to the river or lake.

The state already requires new facilities to use closed-cycle cooling, which recycles and reuses water. That reduces the amount of water taken in by about 98 percent, minimizing the environmental impact.

The new policy would require closed-cycle cooling for all existing facilities that are designed to withdraw 20 million gallons or more of water daily.

Entergy Corp.’s Indian Point nuclear plant on the Hudson River north of New York City is among the facilities potentially affected by the regulations. Environmentalists have long pushed for new technology at Indian Point. Entergy has said installation of cooling towers would cost $1.5 billion and would shut down the plant for 10 months for retrofitting.

“This is something we’ve been recommending all along,” said Manna Jo Greene, environmental director of Hudson River Sloop Clearwater. “Ten of the 13 signature Hudson River fish are in decline, and power plants are a major contributor to that decline.”

DEC calculated that the cost of retrofitting steam generating plants with the new technology would cost New York’s electric industry more than $8.5 billion over 20 years, which amounts to about 6.7 percent of the industry’s gross revenue for the period.

Facilities that demonstrate the closed-cycle cooling tower technology isn’t feasible at their location would be allowed to use alternative technologies such as screens, barrier nets and acoustic fish repellers, as long as they could show the measures reduced fish mortality by at least 90 percent.

The Environmental Protection Agency has estimated that for 99 percent of large steam power plants across the country, compliance costs for implementing these alternative technologies would be less than 3 percent of revenues.

DEC notes that one of the downsides of retrofitting steam plants with closed-cycle cooling towers or alternative measures is that it would reduce generating capacity by about 4 percent. New energy production, equivalent to a new 550-megawatt steam turbine plant, would be required to offset the losses.

The proposal is open to public comment through May 9.

I have recently begun to follow the hydraulic fracturing debate and have been writing a little bit about it on my blog www.enviromentalog.blogspot.com

This weekend as I was reading about White House crashers (seriously?) I was distracted by an article about the split in an upstate community over fracking. Many families in upstate New York own a nice chunk of land. Most were approached by energy companies with a proposition of drilling on their land. Some were outraged and convinced that the negative health effects were not worth the money being offered. Others were lured by the money to be earned and a chance to “rebuild” their community and convince their children to stay in the area. The drilling would be jobs to a community in great need of an economic boost. Some people are being offered $5,000-$6,000 an acre for five years with royalties of 20% for gas that is found. As an unemployed recent grad school grad I can totally understand the lure of money. However, if someone told me they would give me $250,000, but there was a good chance there would be benzene in my drinking water, I am pretty sure I would turn it down. I remember few things from Organic Chemistry but I will never forget the benzene ring. It has 6 carbons and 3 alternating double bonds.Benzene is an especially pernicious toxic substance. Benzene is a known carcinogen which can have effects from both short term and long term exposure. There is no dispute that benzene causes leukemia. In my opinion this is the main reason the DEC cannot allow drilling in the Marcellus Shale. Millions of people depend on that water and we cannot risk benzene contamination!

Another major issue raised in this article is that of “compulsory integration”. This allows gas companies to drill on land they do not have consent for as long as they have most of the leases in the surrounding areas! What???? How can this be legal? You can threaten my drinking water after I explicitly said no. This does not make sense to me. This just seems like a disaster waiting to happen. Who will monitor the water? Will it be given a clean bill of health only to find an entire community and possibly New York City residents sick with leukemia in 20 years…? I understand there are always trade offs, but in my book, risk to human health should never be traded.

A THREAT TO OUR DRINKING WATER
On October 2nd the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) released the draft environmental impact statement that will regulate industrial drilling for natural gas across the state. This draft document (the “DSGEIS”), currently allows for industrial gas drilling to take place in the NYC Watershed – the unfiltered surface water supply for 9 million New Yorkers, serving NYC and the lower Hudson Valley – as well as in other critical watersheds.

The proposed form of industrial gas drilling, known as hydraulic fracturing, or “hydrofracking,” is wrecking havoc in other states where it is in full swing. It is contaminating groundwater and surface water supplies and polluting once rural landscapes. For details you can review the Gas Drilling Reporters that Riverkeeper has compiled and posted here – http://www.riverkeeper.org/campaigns/safeguard/gas-drilling/

For a more graphic depiction of the threat hydrofracking poses to our drinking water supply check out flaming tap water and other disturbing footage here – http://waterunderattack.com/

TAKING ACTION
There is a 60 day public comment period during which concerned citizens can speak out again DEC’s plan to allow hydrofracking in sensitive water areas. You can read the proposed regulations and submit comments here – http://www.dec.ny.gov/energy/58440.html

Everyone should speak out on this critical issue that has long range implications for our region, both in the NYC Watershed and elsewhere. The public comment period is scheduled to end at the end of November. I recommend signing up for the Riverkeeper email list to ensure that you receive timely updates – http://river.convio.net/site/PageServer?pagename=sign_up