License to Kill
By Sandy Bihn, Western Lake Erie Waterkeeper

Lake Erie Power Plant kills a million fish per hour
Anglers wade for walleye in the Maumee River during the spring walleye run, the best in the Great Lakes. This is spawning time and the catches are great. But few anglers are aware of their biggest competitor, and just how many walleye fry — the small fish and larvae — swim down the Maumee only to be swallowed by the Bayshore First Energy power plant. Estimates of impinged and entrained fish in the Bayshore power plant exceed 10 billion annually — that averages to over one million fish killed per hour. Because of the abundance of fish in the Maumee watershed, the Bayshore plant is Great Lakes’ largest fish-killing power plant.

The state of Ohio does not require a permit or even mitigation conditions for these massive Bayshore First Energy fish kills. Odd, considering that on most days the Maumee River and Maumee Bay supply 750 million gallons of water to Bayshore First Energy power plant for cooling. Studies show that on average the whole Maumee River is drawn through the First Energy Bayshore plant each day.

The plant is also very secretive about the mortality of the fish. One report that surfaced in December 2005 said there were enough fish killed by the plant to feed Ohio’s hungry families for years. But the word to the public was that the situation was not so bad and that the pumps just had to be replaced. When Western Lake Erie Waterkeeper called the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, we were told that all was fine — no problems.

The Bayshore plant is not the only fish-guzzling plant on the Maumee — the walleye bass and other fish that spawn in the warmed shallow waters of the Maumee River are also pulled into two other power plants. Consumers Power sucks in 330 million gallons of water a day from the Erie Marsh on the north end of Maumee Bay and Detroit Edison draws another 1.9 billion gallons of water a day from the River Raison, the eastern Maumee Bay and West Lake Erie waters. Combined, the three power plants use about three billion gallons of water daily from the most biologically productive waters of the Great Lakes, discharging waters five to eight degrees warmer than the natural temperature.

What’s worse, the fish coming out of the Maumee River hoping to reach Lake Erie are also entrapped by the Army Corps of Engineers’ dredge disposal facilities in Maumee Bay. The Corps constructed one dredge disposal island near the mouth of the Maumee River and another between the intake and outfall of the Bayshore First Energy power plant. Fish are trapped, herded in a channel entering the power plant and then discharged into a cove created by the dredge disposal peninsula. The design and location of the dredge disposal island and peninsula vastly increase fish mortality.

To protect the walleye, small and large mouth bass and other fish, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources banned recreational and commercial fishing during spawning season and pending legislation seeks to ban commercial fishing altogether. The department has limited commercial fisherman to four walleye 15 inches or larger from March through May, limited the number perch catches and banned bass catches during spawning season. Anyone caught violating these rules is subject to revocation of their fishing license, fine and possible incarceration.

Yet there are no size or quantity limits for the fish kills in the Bayshore First Energy power plant intake, nor are there bans for the power plant during spawning season. The vital question is — why are recreational and commercial fisherman regulated but the power plants are free to kill fish anytime in any numbers?

After decades of work pulling the Great Lakes back from near death, algae blooms and dead zones are back in Lake Erie. The power plants continue to heat the waters and kill the fish of the incredibly beautiful and bountiful Western Lake Erie Basin. Despite massive fish kills the Maumee River boasts one of the largest populations of migrating walleye east of the Mississippi. To let these fish be swallowed up by thirsty power plants with antiquated technology is nothing short of a tragic loss that should be rectified — easily.