CLEAN WATER • STRONG COMMUNITIES • CITIZEN AcTION WATERKEEPER WATERKEEPER® Industrial Cooling and Massive Ecological Destruction Volume 3, Number Volume 3 Jay-Z & Kofi Annan Water for Life Jay-Z & Kofi Annan Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Water for Life Letter from the President Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Gord Downie Letter from the President Heart of a Lake Tour Winter 2007 Winter Winter 2007 $5.95 FHEK:JEIJ7D:JE=;J>;H J[lWikffehjij^[mehae\MWj[ha[[f[h7bb_WdY[jeY^Wcf_edYb[WdmWj[hWdZ ijhed]Yecckd_j_[imehbZm_Z[$=E\khj^[h":Eceh["8;oekhi[b\WjJ;L7$9EC The original sport sandal. The future of outdoor footwear. ©TEVA 2006 OneDegreeAd.pdf 1/3/07 12:41:30 PM >fm\iefi8iefc[JZ_nXiq\e\^^\iXe[ Gi\j`[\ek>\fi^\N%9lj_ eXd\[Xjknff]k_\Èdfjk`e]cl\ek`XcÉ`e>cfYXc:c`dXk\:_Xe^\% C M Y J\\n_p#gclj^\k[X`cpjkfi`\j#Ycf^jXe[m`[\fji\gi\j\ek`e^ CM MY Xccj`[\jf]k_\^cfYXcnXid`e^[\YXk\Ypm`j`k`e^1 CY CMY K )''.K_\N\Xk_\i:_Xee\c#@eZ%8cci`^_kji\j\im\[% WATERKEEPER Volume 3 Number 3, Winter 2007 6 Letter from the President: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. 10 Splashback 12 Ripples 23 22 Free the Colorado River 26 Waterkeepers India 29 Gord Downie’s Heart of a Lake Tour 30 World Water Crisis: Jay-Z & Kofi Annan 32 The Quick and the Dead: Industrial Cooling and Massive 26 Ecological Destruction 34 Fighting Power Plants that Kill Fish by the Billions 36 License to Kill: Lake Erie Power Plant kills a million fish per hour 38 Salem Generating Station: Largest Predator in the Delaware Estuary 40 Willing to Pay for Fish Alive 42 No Coincidence? Open Cycle Cooling Causes Fish Population Crash 44 Taking on “Once-Through Killing” in California 31 45 The Way Forward 46 Modern Cooling Technologies Protect Fish 48 Keeping the Lights on Without River Water 50 New York Harbor School 54 Local Government Takes Environmental Law into their Own Hands 56 Waterkeeper Programs Map 34 60 Ganymede: Bagging the Evidence 62 Waterkeeper’s Wake: Chapter Five, Sirena 63 Farr on Film: In the Navy 64 On the Water, William Buck 66 Beating Around the Bush 53 Waterkeeper Magazine Winter 2007 www.waterkeeper.org Letter from the President Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Killing Fish by the Trillions few years ago, New York State able technologies to avoid killing fish, the vironmental movement and provided the Conservation Officers boarded a industry, often working in cahoots with foundation for environmental law in the A dinghy belonging to a fisherman government regulators, has defied and United States. named Jimmy Bleakly and found a few subverted and disobeyed the law at every In the 1960’s Con Ed, the New York dozen undersized striped bass that Bleak- turn. Utilities lend each other experts, power utility, pursued several massive ly intended for his table. Department at- lawyers and lobbyists, and sponsor train- and absurd hydroelectric energy proj- torneys asked a state court judge to fine ing sessions on how to defeat Clean Wa- ects, including one to dam (and destroy) Bleakly the full penalty provided by the ter Act requirements. By suing individual Niagara Falls. In 1964, Con Ed received a law — $250 per fish, a ruinous amount for power plants over the years Waterkeepers license from the Federal Power Commis- a blue-collar stiff like Bleakly. There is, of have effected hard-won improvements. sion to construct a pumped-storage hy- course, no excuse for taking undersized But the carnage continues. And wher- droelectric facility on top of Storm King fish, but one thousand yards from where ever fish are slaughtered in these massive Mountain, a beautiful and historically Bleakly was fishing, Consolidated Edison’s numbers, fisheries collapse and aquatic significant promontory on the shore of Indian Point Power Plant sucks in and ecosystems fail. the Hudson River in Cornwall, just north kills as many as one million undersized Closed-cycle cooling — which recircu- of West Point. In 1965, however, a federal Hudson River fish every day. Neither state lates water harmlessly like a car radiator court set aside the Storm King license and nor federal officials have ever attempted — and other technologies can cut water remanded the matter back to the Federal to penalize Con Ed for its illegal fish kill. use and fish kills by 95 percent. Yet, power Power Commission. While fishermen are often blamed for col- plants across the country still use more The court stated that “The Commission’s lapsing fisheries, power plant cooling sys- than 60 trillion gallons of “once-through” renewed proceedings must include as a tems are often the worse culprit. cooling water and kill more than a trillion basic concern the preservation of natural On waterways around the nation bil- fish each year. Larger fish are crushed on beauty and national historic shrines, keep- lions of fish are sucked into power plants the screens that filter debris out of the ing in mind that, in our affluent society, the and factories and killed each day. While cooling water, while smaller fish, larva cost of a project is only one of several fac- most fishermen scrupulously observe size and other aquatic organisms are sucked tors to be considered.” In addition, the court and catch limits, power utilities indis- inside the plant and superheated. Despite ruled that, “On remand, the Commission criminately destroy American fishes on declining inland and coastal fisheries, should take the whole fisheries question a scale that is hard to conceive. Consider industry and government allow these pi- into consideration before deciding whether this: According to its own paid consul- scine slaughterhouses to flourish. the Storm King project is licensed.” tants, the Salem Nuclear Power Plant on Stopping these massive fish kills is one of That language opened up the courts the Delaware River kills 412 million white Waterkeeper Alliance’s highest priorities. to environmentalists for the first time in perch and 2 billion bay anchovies each In the fall issue of Waterkeeper I wrote history. The Storm King decision gave en- year — that plant alone is responsible for in this column about the birth of Hudson vironmentalists and fishermen “standing” the collapse of the Delaware River’s prin- Riverkeeper and the Waterkeeper move- to sue in cases where public waterways cipal fisheries. ment. The Hudson River Fisherman’s and fish would be harmed by pollution or The biggest tragedy is that the electric Association (Hudson Riverkeeper’s pre- damaging projects. By enlarging consti- power plant industry has the resources decessor organization) launched the tutional “standing” to embrace aesthetic, and technology to eliminate most fish national battle against power plant fish recreational and cultural injuries, the de- kills, but has aggressively fought every ef- kills in 1965. The successful battle to cision radically expanded the jurisdiction fort at reform. While the Clean Water Act halt construction of Con Ed’s proposed of federal courts, allowing them to hear for 35 years has made such fish kills illegal Storm King Mountain pump storage fa- cases by plaintiffs who wanted to protect and required utilities to use the best avail- cility galvanized the budding national en- public resources from polluters or devel- Waterkeeper Magazine Winter 2007 www.waterkeeper.org The biggest tragedy is that the electric power industry has the resources and opers. The court’s decision marked the screens and take other steps to protect birth of American environmental law. eggs and larvae from being sucked into the technology to eliminate The Storm King decision also required intakes. Con Ed was temporarily spared most fish kills, but has the first full environmental impact state- the costs of constructing cooling towers ment ever. In 1969, Congress codified the while it investigated new technologies for aggressively fought every Storm King decision into the nation’s most reducing fish kills. Unfortunately, none of effort at reform. important piece of environmental legisla- these technologies was successful in sig- tion, the National Environmental Policy nificantly mitigating the carnage. Act (NEPA)—which forces federal agen- The killing of hundreds of billions of in to derail the process and help the power cies to assess environmental impacts of fish each year continued. industry violate the law. That industry had every major decision. The Storm King de- In 1992 Hudson Riverkeeper and six recently donated $48 million to the Bush/ cision laid the constitutional groundwork other Waterkeeper programs operating Cheney campaign. After three months of for “citizen suits,” the critical enforcement on Long Island Sound, Delaware River, closed-door meetings with energy indus- provisions that make environmental law— San Francisco Bay, New York/New Jer- try lobbyists, beginning immediately after from the Clean Water Act to the Endan- sey Harbor, Puget Sound and Casco Bay President Bush’s inauguration, the Bush gered Species Act—function in absence of formed the Waterkeeper Alliance. As administration released Vice President government enforcement. The Storm King their first major collective legal action Dick Cheney’s infamous energy plan. The fight had literally invented the term “envi- filed suit against EPA for failure to enforce plan skirted conservation and environ- ronmental law” and launched a national the Clean Water Act and stop power plant mental protection and threw open public movement for citizen protection of our en- cooling water fish kills. coffers for billions of dollars of subsidies vironmental rights — the Waterkeepers. The 1972 Clean Water Act required for oil, coal and nuclear industries, plus But the battle over fish kills at power EPA to promulgate regulations to mini- tax breaks and deregulation. plants was far from over. mize fish kills. But in 1974, 60 power utili- Among the casualties of the admin- Concern about power plant intakes and ties, under the leadership of the Edison istration’s energy plan was EPA’s plan to fish kills was playing out in the licensing Electric Institute, an industry trade group, stop catastrophic power plant fish kills.