Jul 3 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Rusty Dennen The Free Lance-Star, Fredericksburg, Va.



An environmental group lost the latest round in a court fight over a disputed water permit for North Anna Power Station.

The Virginia Court of Appeals ruled this week that the State Water Control Board's 2007 renewal of a Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit was appropriate.

In February, Richmond Circuit Court Judge Margaret Spencer sided with the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League's contention that the plant's waste heat treatment facility should be subject to the federal Clean Water Act.

Since the plant began operating in the late 1970s, Dominion has contended that the lagoon, where heated water from the plant's two reactors is cooled, is a waste facility and not a water impoundment.

 The lagoon, ringed by houses and boat docks, is also known as the lake's hot side. Water from the hot side eventually drains back into the main lake through a dike.

Every five years, the State Water Control Board must reissue a permit for the heated discharge.

Richard Zuercher, spokesman for Dominion power's nuclear operations, said Wednesday that the waste heat treatment facility has been operating since Unit 1 went online in 1978.

"Dominion built Lake Anna and the [waste heat] facility to support electricity production and has operated the station in compliance with federal and state law."

Based in North Carolina, the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League is among opponents of Dominion's plan to add a third nuclear reactor at the power plant on Lake Anna, near Mineral in Louisa County.

An application for Dominion to build and operate Unit 3 is pending before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Along with Dominion, defendants in the case included the State Water Control Board, and David K. Paylor, director of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.

Rusty Dennen: 540/374-5431

Email: rdennen@freelancestar.com

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