New Lawsuits Aim at Bush EPA Action Enabling Millions of Fish Kills

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> Tue, 24 Aug 2004 13:07:02 GMT

> " BushGreenwatch " <info

 

> New Lawsuits Aim at Bush EPA Action

> Enabling Millions of Fish Kills

>

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> BUSHGREENWATCH

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> Misdeeds

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>

> August 24, 2004

>

> NEW LAWSUITS AIM AT BUSH EPA ACTION ENABLING

> MILLIONS OF FISH

> KILLS

>

> As reported by BushGreenwatch last February, the

> U.S.

> Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) opted to allow

> existing

> power plants and other industrial facilities to

> continue using

> cooling water systems which kill countless fish in

> American

> rivers every year--and to mitigate the damage by

> trying to

> restock the fish.

>

> EPA issued this regulation despite a unanimous

> decision by the

> Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which found

> that allowing

> massive destruction of wildlife in cooling systems,

> and then

> attempting to replace them in the ecosystem, did not

> fulfill the

> Clean Water Act requirement to use the " best

> technology

> available " to mitigate environmental damage.

>

> Now, the Hudson River-based organization Riverkeeper

> is again

> leading a national coalition of environmental groups

> in suing

> EPA, charging the agency with violating the mandate

> of Congress

> under the Clean Water Act.

>

> " Unfortunately, the agency has illegally rewritten

> the Clean

> Water Act to allow industry to avoid upgrading power

> plants that

> function as aquatic slaughterhouses, " said Alex

> Matthiessen,

> executive director of Riverkeeper, in the

> organization's July

> announcement of the suit. [1]

>

> While the Second Circuit's February decision applied

> specifically to a portion of EPA's rules called

> Phase I

> regulation, which applies to new facilities,

> Riverkeeper charges

> EPA with exceeding its authority in applying a

> different

> standard to existing facilities with the subsequent

> set of

> rules, called Phase II regulation. [2]

>

> " EPA has caved in to the demands of the power

> industry, and

> completely abdicated responsibility under the Clean

> Water Act, "

> Reed Super, Riverkeeper senior attorney and lead

> counsel in the

> suit, told BushGreenwatch. " We hope the court will

> vacate or

> remand some or all of the rule. " [3]

>

> Super tells BushGreenwatch that six state attorneys

> general--Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New

> Jersey, New

> York, and Rhode Island--have also filed suit against

> EPA.

>

> " The states, as well as environmental groups,

> recognize that EPA

> is dropping the ball. This will raise the level of

> importance of

> the case in the eyes of the judge, " says Super.

>

> Currently, the best cooling technology available is

> " closed

> cycle, " which re-circulates water repeatedly to

> cool a plant.

> This dramatically lessens water use, and reduces the

> kills of

> fish and other organisms by approximately 95% over

> the much

> older, more destructive--and less

> expensive-- " once-through "

> systems.

>

> These older systems pull in several billion gallons

> of water a

> day, leading to a massive mortality--trillions of

> fish,

> shellfish, and other organisms--every year.

>

> In once-through systems, larger animals are killed

> by

> " impingement, " or being trapped against water intake

> screens.

> Their eggs and larvae are killed by " entrainment, "

> being drawn

> in to exchangers that transfer the plant's heat to

> the water,

> where they die from heat, toxicity, and physical

> stress.

>

> Once-through cooling systems rival the fishing

> industry in the

> number of fish and shellfish killed every year.

> About 52% of

> power plants in the U.S. use once-through systems.

> [3]

>

> Super vividly describes the impact this outmoded

> technology has

> on the Hudson River. " Just one plant--the Indian

> Point Nuclear

> Power Plant--uses 2.4 billion gallons a day of

> cooling water, "

> he says. " By comparison, nine million people use New

> York City's

> water supply, and they consume only 1.2 billion

> gallons a day.

>

> " Indian Point is just one of five plants on the

> Hudson using

> once-through cooling systems. Altogether they are

> sucking nearly

> five billion gallons daily from the river. "

>

> ###

>

> SOURCES:

> [1] Riverkeeper press release, Jul. 26, 2004,

> http://ga3.org/ct/HdzkGk91raDX/.

> [2] Riverkeeper fact sheet,

> http://ga3.org/ct/H7zkGk91raD4/.

> [3] Ibid.

>

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