Dead Zones? [Archive] - Striper Talk Striped Bass Fishing, Surfcasting, Boating

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03-30-2004, 04:29 PM

Editorial Note: We learnt that power plants are not very efficient. Here is an example of what happens to the waste heat from a power plant.... Sunil Somalwar

Power plant blamed for Mt. Hope Bay 'dead zone'

By Beth Daley, Globe Staff, 3/7/2002

SOMERSET - Even among New England's devastating fishery collapses, the story of Mt. Hope Bay is a shock. In this 13-square-mile expanse of water that straddles Rhode Island and Massachusetts, 15 species of fish have all but disappeared in the span of a decade. The drop has been so complete that some fishermen call it ''the dead zone.''

To some scientists, it's no mystery who the biggest culprit is: Brayton Point, New England's largest fossil-fuel power plant. Sitting on the edge of the bay, the plant uses nearly 1 billion gallons of water daily and pumps much of it into the bay at temperatures of up to 95 degrees Fahrenheit, causing temperature increases of up to 5 degrees in parts of the bay.

The plant's owner, PG&E National Energy Group, vehemently denies its cooling system has any connection with the disappearance of the bay's fish, and has spent at least $4 million since 1998 for scientific studies, in part to prove it is not responsible.

But the US Environmental Protection Agency says it considers the plant at least partly responsible and has spent four years amassing enough data to make an airtight case. Now, as the EPA readies to issue a new water-discharge permit to the plant, already two years late, some fear all the competing science could get in the way of saving the bay.

''On one hand, EPA must be very careful that its case is bulletproof and based on the best available science,'' said John Torgan of Save The Bay in Rhode Island. ''But we've done a great job over the last 15 years documenting the condition of Mt. Hope Bay. We should base a decision on the best science available ... and that science says the plant is responsible. We can't afford to wait.''

Brayton Point, with its signature four smokestacks, opened in the early 1960s and today supplies roughly one-fifth of Massachusetts' electrical power. To cool its equipment, it uses water from the Taunton and Lee rivers that flow into Mt. Hope Bay.

In 1985, changes at the plant increased water use by 45 percent - and almost immediately fish stocks underwent a dramatic downward slide, according to the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.

Fishing boats that used to dot the bay slowly disappeared. ''The fish are just gone, '' said Stephen Medeiros, president of the Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association. ''No one bothers to fish there anymore.''

At least four Rhode Island state environmental reports note that the bay's collapse was more severe than any other nearby fishery. Some of the fish were popular species like winter flounder, which are heavily affected by fishing all along the coast. But others, like sea robins and hogchokers, are rarely caught by fishermen at all. According to a 1996 study, the bay's overall fish population dropped 86 percent after the plant increased its water use.

''There is a body count and it's obvious,'' said Mark Gibson, the Rhode Island state biologist who first documented the decline. ''We've looked at what else it can be. Winter flounder is rebounding elsewhere; why aren't they in Mt. Hope Bay? No one is fishing there.''

Gibson and scientists for the Conservation Law Foundation point to two key ways the power plant could be affecting marine life. Its huge intake pipes, they say, kill millions of fish larvae and eggs. And by raising temperatures in the bay, the hot water pumped out by the plant makes it inhospitable to some species.

They note that a few fish populations are increasing - but these are fish that prefer warmer water, or are more adaptable.

PG&E officials say the changes in Mt. Hope Bay could be the result of overfishing, or could even be a natural decline. The company has hired a URI fishery professor as a consultant, and gave a $1 million unrestricted grant to the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth last year to document why fish populations are declining and to recommend solutions.

Not all studies are in, but those scientists say the plant does not appear to be having a dramatic effect on Mt. Hope Bay. PG&E also downplays the importance of its intake pipes on the bay's fish population, arguing that few eggs and larvae make it to adulthood anyway. Yesterday the EPA announced a proposal to let power plants nationwide replace fish sucked into intake pipes, rather than find ways to keep them out.

The plant's last discharge permit expired in 1998, and since then the EPA has been collecting data on all factors that could affect fish populations, including pollution and overfishing. The documents it has assembled - from Rhode Island state biologists, the EPA's own studies, and PG&E - now stack nearly 6 feet high.

EPA scientists want the studies to be conclusive enough to withstand challenges to their decision. PG&E has indicated it will appeal the decision if the new permit seems too strict - a move that could tie up the issue for a year or more, while the plant continues its current level of water use. Environmentalists too, including the Conservation Law Foundation, have said they will challenge the permit if it is not strong enough.

Although PG&E officials deny any fault for fish decline, they offered this year to spend $58 million to build a cooling tower that would reduce the water use at the plant by 33 percent. The reduction would bring the plant back to pre-1985 discharge levels, and the company would like that offer to serve as the foundation of its new water-use permit.

''There is too much uncertainty in the science,'' said Lisa Franklin, a spokeswoman for the plant. ''So we want to take ourselves out of the equation'' of the fish decline.

But environmentalists say so many fish have died that even a return to pre-1985 levels of water release is probably not enough, and they want stricter regulations on the plant.

Beth Daley can be reached at bdaley@globe.com