BOSTON – A settlement between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Dominion Energy Brayton Point LLC, endorsed by the State of Rhode Island and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, has paved the way for the Somerset plant to install new cooling towers to protect sea life in Mount Hope Bay and Narragansett Bay, the federal agency said.
Brayton Point Power Station is the largest fossil-fuel burning power plant in New England. The settlement resolves a dispute that dates back to 2003, when the EPA issued a final discharge permit requiring the power station to make significant reductions in water intake from and thermal discharge to Mount Hope Bay.
“During this season of thanks and celebration, we are especially happy that Dominion is now committed to taking important steps to protect the environment of Mount Hope Bay,” Robert Varney, the EPA’s regional administrator for New England, said in a statement last night.
The new agreement – ending all EPA and Dominion litigation over the discharge permit (called a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System or NPDES permit) – requires the energy company to fully implement the heat limits and flow requirements specified in the Brayton Point permit.
Dominion has agreed to retrofit the power plant’s existing “open-cycle” cooling system, adding a “closed-cycle” cooling system, the EPA said. (The current system “damages or kills many aquatic organisms by ‘entrainment’ and/or ‘impingement,’ in addition to elevating water temperature in the Bay,” the agency said.)
The EPA has agreed to give Dominion 36 months – after obtaining all required construction and operating permits and approvals – to achieve the 95-percent reductions in water flow and heat discharge required by the 2003 permit. “Under this aggressive yet achievable schedule,” the agency said, “Brayton Point Station may fully comply with its NPDES permit limits by as soon as the spring of 2012.”
Mount Hope Bay – whose waters embrace the shores of both Rhode Island and Massachusetts – is a key segment of the Narragansett Bay estuary and is designated as an estuary of national significance under the federal Clean Water Act, the EPA noted.
Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch called the agreement “an important victory for Rhode Island, Mount Hope Bay and its fisheries and everybody who uses this irreplaceable natural resource.”
“Although the previous owners of Brayton Point could have spared the Bay much of the devastation it has suffered, by agreeing to install this technology years ago, the fact is, they never did,” Lynch said.
The settlement also was commended by local nonprofit groups. “Save The Bay applauds and commends EPA Region I and Dominion for achieving the terms of this agreement,” said Narragansett Baykeeper John Torgan. “We hope that it will prove a significant step in stopping thermal pollution and restoring the fish populations of Mount Hope Bay.” Added Christopher Kilian, director of the Conservation Law Foundation’s Clean Water Program: “It is far better to protect the Bay and its fisheries than suffer through years’ more of litigation delays.”
“We are pleased with the outcome,” W. Michael Sullivan, director of the R.I. Department of Environmental Management, said in a statement last night, adding: “The full restoration of a historic fishery will now be possible.”
Yet, Lynch noted, “As is the case with all settlements, this settlement comes with a cost.
“There is no question that the height of the [new cooling] towers will be aesthetically unpleasant for the people who live in communities on Mount Hope Bay. In our analysis, however, the benefit of literally ‘Saving the Bay’ outweighs this cost.”
Additional information, including the final discharge permit for Brayton Point Power Station, is available from the U.S. Environmental Protection’s New England office at www.epa.gov/region1/.
Dominion (NYSE: D) is one of the nation’s largest energy producers and transporters, with electricity, natural gas and oil holdings that include the Brayton Point Power Station in Somerset. To learn more, visit www.dom.com.
