There”™s nothing fishy about Entergy”™s alternative answer to keeping the Hudson River alive and well, said its vice president of licensing renewal, Fred Dacimo. However, Indian Point”™s opponents say Entergy”™s solution to protecting aquatic life is not enough.
Speaking to more than 125 business owners and politicians at a recent meeting of the Rockland Business Association, Dacimo said Indian Point has passed the National Regulatory Commission”™s operating standards and can remain on line for another two decades.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation says Entergy can make the Hudson River more aquatically friendly to fish, their hatchlings and eggs that get sucked into its current filtration system by building cooling towers on either side of existing plants.
Entergy is proposing a wedge-wire system instead. The result is the DEC will not issue a state pollutant discharge elimination system (SPDES) permit until Entergy agrees to build the cooling towers. Entergy says its alternative plan ”“ wedge wire ”“ to protect the Hudson and its hatchlings is just as effective and far less costly than the proposed towers with far less impact than the DEC is taking into consideration. The existing permits for Indian Point”™s Units 2 and 3 end in 2013 and 2015, respectively.
Dacimo said the DEC”™s proposed solution would cost an estimated $2 billion and could not be put into service until 2029. Further, he said, the two cooling towers, which Entergy estimates will equal the size of two Yankee stadiums, would not just be an eyesore but would fail to meet Westchester County”™s air quality standards when put into operation.
“On the north side, there are sensitive land concerns,” Dacimo said. “On the south side of Indian Point, there is the Algonquin gas line that serves New England. It would have to be relocated. The company has been put on notice by the village of Buchanan it intends to block the building of the cooling towers as vigorously as it can, so you tack on years of litigation to get cooling towers approved.”
Add to that the approximate time the power plant would have to be shut down for the construction of the cooling towers, said Dacimo ”“ 44 weeks if weather conditions are optimal. There are 2.5 million Westchester and New York City consumers that depend on Indian Point for power.
According to the DEC”™s denial for the SPDES permit, Entergy”™s proposed use of a wedge-wire system will not meet the level of protection the fish and their spawning grounds would get if cooling towers were used. Cooling towers may cut the damage to estuary life by 90 percent, while wedge wire, a new technology the DEC said has not been tested enough, can only guarantee between 77 and 80 percent protection.
Wedge wire has been used successfully in other power plants in other states, Dacimo said. “It is environmentally friendly, is not going to release harmful particulates into the air through steam as cooling towers do, (is) totally underwater and would not disturb existing land on either side of the plant.”
Dacimo, who owns a marina on Long Island, says he is “more than sensitive to keeping the Hudson clean ”¦ but at what price? The cost to the environment, air quality and the time it would take to build them ”“ that”™s not including the time lost in litigation if the village sticks to its decision to fight the construction ”“ are all factors to take into consideration.”
He said wedge-wire technology may be “new to NYSDEC, but it is not new in other parts of the country and would keep the plant operational and protect the Hudson in a much more efficient and cost-effective way than what the DEC is proposing.”
Dacimo estimated the Buchanan plant pays $34 million a year in property taxes, employs 1,100 people and has a $750 million annual economic impact on the lower Hudson Valley”™s economy. “Installing wedge wire to comply with protecting fish and spawning areas in the river would not interfere with the plant”™s operation and could be operational years before a cooling tower is operational.”
The DEC”™s spokesman, Yancey Roy, declined comment, writing in an e-mail the matter between DEC and Entergy in regard to the issuance of a SPDES permit and use of wedge wire in lieu of building cooling towers is in litigation and will be decided by an administrative law judge.
