Date : Tue, 11 Jun 2013 11:49:03 -0400
For Immediate Release
June 11, 2013
Contact Jeff Tittel, 609-558-9200
BL England Needs Cooling Towers Now
The Sierra Club has joined with other environmental groups to call on the DEP to require cooling towers at the BL England Generating Station as part of an updated New Jersey Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
("NJPDES") permit.The plant is currently being repowered from coal to natural gas to reduce air pollution.However, the change in fuel source will not mitigate the impacts the plant's Unit 4 is having on the Great Egg Harbor Bay. The plant has a once through cooling system that is responsible for killing billions of fish and other aquatic creatures each year.One of the plants units, Unit 3 already has a cooling tower and a second closed loop system should be required on Unit 4.
"They are basically building a new plant where the old plant is and should therefore have to get a new water discharge permit.The plant should no longer be grandfathered, they need to be required to install cooling towers," said Jeff Tittel, Director, NJ Sierra Club."Every day this plant takes millions of gallons of clean water out of the Bay.We lose some of the water in the cooling process and the rest is dumped back in heated and polluted with all kinds of chemicals.This plant has a direct impact not only on the Bay but the entire ecosystem. The plant kills millions of fish through its intake system, depletes the Bay and discharges heated water that causes algae to grow, which can cause eutrophication problems.The Bay is shallow so it has an even bigger impact.We are going after this plant because the Bay belongs to all of us, and they should have to put in cooling towers under the Clean Water Act."
Great Egg Harbor Bay's waters are significantly impacted by the continued operation of the plant.The discharge of super heated water by the BL England plant results in significant dissolved oxygen problems.The discharges from the plant have resulted in the Bay failing to meet state and federal water quality standards.Cooling towers would reduce these impacts.
Requiring cooling towers would bring the plant into compliance with section 316(B) of the Clean Water Act.Cooling towers are the best available technology (BAT) to address the continued pollution and taking of organisms at the plant.The upcoming repowering process is an opportunity to install a closed-cycle cooling system that will reduce B.L. England's water withdrawals and the environmental impacts by 90%, at an affordable cost, without disrupting B.L. England's electricity generating operations.
Two of the plants units being converted to natural gas by 2016 while a third one is closing this year. This plan for BL England is cleaner than coal, but renewable energy would have been better. Given BL England's location this plant would have been a great facility for off shore wind generation instead of natural gas. ^
The comments were prepared by the Super Law Firm on behalf of the Sierra Club, American Littoral Society, New Jersey Environmental Federation, Clean Ocean Action, and Eastern Environmental Law Center.
"These plants are robbing us of the Bay that belongs to all of us.They are killing fish, stealing our water, and adding pollution to the Bay.The technology has been there for decades to make these plants better protect the bay.For too long the government has been protecting the polluters instead of protecting the Bay that belongs to all of us," said Jeff Tittel.
-- Kate Millsaps Conservation Program Coordinator NJ Chapter of the Sierra Club 609-656-7612
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