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A resolution designed to require closed-cycle cooling systems on industrial facilities, such as the Indian River power plant, passed the house unanimously, but has died in committee before the Senate took action.
House Concurrent Resolution 68, sponsored by Reps. Gregory Hastings, R-Millsboro, and William Oberle, R-Beechers Lot, and Sen. George Bunting, D-Bethany Beach, called on the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) to require closed-cycle cooling systems and to declare them the best technology available for water intake.
They are widely regarded as the best technology to minimize the adverse environmental effects on waterways and aquatic life from cooling-water intakes.
Environmentalists advocate closed-cycle cooling systems as the best way to cool industrial facilities with the least effect on the environment.
Bunting said, “I am disappointed we didn’t get a vote on it in the last session. I understand some companies were lobbying. I think this is where we should be going. When a facility is killing millions of small fish a year, it has got to make a significant impact on the total numbers.”
Bunting said he was concerned about the impact of the Indian River power plant on the fishery of the Inland Bays. He said people in the area are conservation-minded and recreational fishermen mind the regulations. “Then you have a plant that kills millions of fish per year, and that is unsettling, especially when better technology is available,” he said.
Closed-system cooling structures recycle the same water, adding new only to replace what has evaporated, using less water than once-through systems.
Once-through cooling systems take in water to absorb heat and discharge the heated water back into the original source. This can wreak havoc on aquatic life by killing fish and crabs in the cooling system itself while disrupting the ecology of the waterway by heating it.
Maya van Rossum, Delaware Riverkeeper, said, “The quantity of fish killed that can be reduced by using a closed-cycle approach is up to 99 percent.
“There is no excuse for a facility to be using once-through cooling systems at this point.”
Chris Bason, science and technical coordinator for the Center for the Inland Bays said, “Each year, the cooling water intake of the Indian River power plant kills millions upon millions of fish and hundreds of thousands of crabs. For our small bays, these numbers are astounding.”
Lori Neuman, spokeswoman for NRG Energy, owner of the power plant, said one unit at the facility already has closed-cycle cooling and the company is working with DNREC to meet regulations on another unit. The two oldest units are scheduled to be shut down in 2010 and 2011.
Bason said, “Closed-cycle cooling would also go a long way to improve the condition of Island Creek, which receives thermal discharge.”
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