Splashback

The Quick and the WE WIN
On January 26, just days after the Waterkeeper magazine winter issue on Industrial Cooling and Ecological Destruction hit newsstands, a federal court ruled in our favor in the case argued in court and described in the issue by Reed Super.

“This decision will give the millions of Lake Erie fish and billions of fish eggs a chance. They can no longer argue that it is OK to kill fish because of economics. And best of all, the fish will come back once the cooling towers are in place.”
Sandy Bihn, Western Lake Erie Waterkeeper

“Reed Super was the winning quarter-back – thanks to his tenacity and intelligence, we succeeded.”
John Torgan, Narragansett Baykeeper

Federal Court Finds Massive Power Plant Fish Kills Illegal
EPA faulted for placing power plant profits over public trust
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, January 26, 2007

NEW YORK, NY – A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled yesterday that EPA cannot allow power plants to kill a trillion fish per year through their cooling water intakes. Cooling water intakes gulp in billions of gallons of river, lake and coastal water to cool power plant machinery. Along with the water, these intakes devour countless fish and fish larvae, devastating fish populations across the country.

In a major victory for environmentalists, fishermen and the public, the court found that regulations issued by EPA in 2004 improperly rejected “closed cycle cooling,” a technology that cools plant machinery while nearly eliminating the need for large infusions of freshwater. This technology also greatly reduces the massive fish kills associated with power plant operations. The court also found that EPA violated the law by placing the profits of power companies above the protection of America’s fisheries, defying the direct mandate of Congress in 1972 to EPA to stop these unnecessary impacts.

“This historic decision validates what the environmental community has been saying for decades,” said Alex Matthiessen, Hudson Riverkeeper and President of Riverkeeper, Inc. “The Clean Water Act requires use of the best technology available. By ignoring that requirement EPA has thwarted the will of Congress and repeatedly failed to protect fish and wildlife from needless devastation at the hands of power plants.”

“Once again the courts have prevented EPA from rewriting the Clean Water Act at the behest of industry,” said Reed Super, Senior Clinical Staff Attorney at Columbia Law School’s Environmental Law Clinic and lead attorney for the Environmental Petitioners.

Steve Fleischli, Executive Director of Waterkeeper Alliance explained, “Waterkeeper Alliance filed this lawsuit because EPA has ignored the Clean Water Act by allowing power plants to kill billions of fish each day. The solutions to this problem have been available, affordable and in common use for decades. With this victory, this indiscriminate and illegal slaughter should now stop.”

“For three decades PSE&G has been getting away with murder at its Salem Nuclear Generating Station – needlessly killing three billion Delaware River fish a year. This year, when New Jersey issues a renewed permit to PSE&G, they will be forced to stop the fish slaughter and to comply with the law. It is rewarding to have a court finally tell industry, EPA and the states that our environment and our communities must come first.”
Maya van Rossum, Delaware Riverkeeper and coauthor of “The Quick and the Dead,” the landmark 1995 law review article on fish kills and industrial cooling

Setting Precedent
On March 5, just weeks after the federal court decision, a court in Wisconsin overturned a state agency decision on cooling technology in a massive new coal-fired power plant on Lake Michigan. The state court ordered the agency to make a new decision that comports with the January 2007 Riverkeeper v. EPA case.

El Segundo
The owner of the El Segundo Power generating station in Los Angeles, CA, is seeking permission from state regulators to switch to a closed-cycle cooling system. The 50-year-old plant is being rebuilt and originally planned on using 127 billion gallons of bay water a year for cooling. The plant will restart in 2010 with cooling towers that will drastically reduce the killing of fish and marine life.

“We plan to take the boat out over the old intake and toast to the future recovery of our beloved bay: the sea turtles, seals, sharks, sea lions, rays and kelp forests — and the millions upon millions of fish.”
Santa Monica Baykeeper Tracy Egoscue