Northeast states sue EPA over water use rules for power plants

Northeast states sue EPA over water use rules for power plants

By RICHARD C. LEWIS
Associated Press Writer

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- Six Northeast states, including Connecticut, have sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, claiming its rules governing power plants' use of water will cause continued fish kills and other environmental harm.

The EPA published regulations in July 2004 outlining how power plants nationwide can use water from bays, rivers, lakes, oceans and other waterways for cooling.

The issue has been contentious in states where older, mostly fossil-fuel plants draw in large amounts of water for cooling, a process scientists and others say kills fish, larvae and eggs either while the water is being sucked in or when it has been heated.

The lawsuit was filed July 5 in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. Rhode Island is the lead state because of the Brayton Point Power Station in Somerset, Mass., a coal-fired plant that uses mostly Rhode Island water for its cooling operations.

Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey joined the suit. Arguments are expected in March, said Mike Rubin, chief of the environmental unit at the Rhode Island attorney general's office.

The states want the court to throw out a section of the EPA rule they say would allow power plant operators to avoid installing technology that would vastly reduce the amount of water a plant needs to draw. The current regulations let plants continue to take in large amounts of water, as long as they restore any environmental damage they cause.

"It says in effect if it's an already polluted water body, then there's not much benefit to stopping since the fish are already dead," he said.

The agency does not comment on pending litigation, said Ephraim King, director of the EPA's office of science and technology, who defended the current rules.

"We think it's a useful, productive and effective tool and completely consistent with the Clean Water Act," King said.

For years, Rhode Island has pushed Brayton Point to install the more efficient water-cooling system known as closed-cycle cooling.

The plant, located near the Massachusetts-Rhode Island border, currently takes in about 1 billion gallons of water daily from Mount Hope Bay, an amount equivalent to draining the 14-square mile body of water about seven times a year. The water returns to the bay up to 30 degrees warmer than when it was drawn in, according to EPA analyses.

In October 2003, the EPA and Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection issued a permit requiring Brayton Point to cut its water intake by 94 percent. The plant appealed to the Environmental Appeals Board in Washington. Dan Genest, spokesman for Dominion, which bought Brayton Point last January, said the company was awaiting a decision before deciding how to proceed.