Comments: All the power companies everywhere is to just ask the state to release hot water: " state officials are making a mistake by granting variances to power companies to exceed hot water thresholds"
State issues exemptions; environmentalists worry about fish
By Erin Meyer and Julie Wernau, Chicago Tribune reportersAugust 20, 2012
The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency is allowing power plants to dump hundreds of millions of gallons of water per day at temperatures approaching 100 degrees into the state's waterways, the Tribune has learned.
Temperature-sensitive fish already have been swimming deeper to find cooler water or have been abandoning environmentally inhospitable areas during the heat and drought. But with power plant operators dumping hot water at record amounts, environmentalists say the fish, along with the rivers and lakes they live in, could face increased risk.
Regulators and power plant operators say the waivers to release water hotter than normal are necessary so they can continue providing adequate power in August, following the warmest July in U.S. history when energy demand from air conditioners was soaring.
"Do you want people to start dying, or do you want to save some fish?" said Julia Wozniak, of Midwest Generation, whose job is to make sure the plants remain in compliance with thermal emission limitations.
In issuing the variances to four coal-fired plants and four nuclear plants, the IEPA has largely relied on power plant and grid operators to say whether shutting down any individual facility would lead to widespread power outages.
Plant operators — struggling because of stubbornly low electricity prices — have a financial incentive to keep plants running rather than power down. Analysts say that for every day that a power plant shuts down, its owner loses hundreds of thousands of dollars. And Midwest Generation, which operates six coal-fired plants in Illinois, is struggling and may be forced to seek bankruptcy protection along with its parent company, executives said this month.
Henry Henderson, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's Midwest office in Chicago, said state officials are making a mistake by granting variances to power companies to exceed hot water thresholds.
Instead, power plants should power down, he said.
"Illinois exports energy; we have energy security," he said. "The powering down is not a threat to energy security."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-nuclear-water-20120820,0,3294202,print.story
