Defining And Assessing Adverse Environmental Impact From Power Plant Impingement And Entrainment Of Aquatic Organisms

The U.S. Clean Water Act calls for the minimization of "adverse environmental impact" at cooling water intake structures. To facilitate an exchange of information among all stakeholders in the issue, the Electric Power Research Institute organised a national symposium in 2001 to discuss the meaning of adverse environmental impact and methods for its assessment. Technical experts in federal and state resource agencies, academia, industry and non-governmental organizations attended the symposium. This is a collection of peer-reviewed papers, intended both to inform and to encourage the development of rules regarding the minimization of adverse environmental impact at cooling water intake structures.

A direct solution of the heat conduction equation with prescribed initial and boundary conditions yields temperature distribution inside a specimen. The direct solution is mathematically considered as a well-posed one because the solution exists, is unique, and continuously depends on input data. The estimation of unknown parameters from the measured temperature data is known as the inverse problem of heat conduction. An error in temperature measurement, thermal time lagging, thermocouple-cavity, or signal noise data makes stability a problem in the estimation of unknown parameters. The solution of the inverse problem can be obtained by employing the gradient or non-gradient based inverse algorithm. The aim of this book is to analyze the inverse problem and heat exchanger applications in the fields of aerospace, mechanical, applied mechanics, environment sciences, and engineering.

"Assessment approaches and strategies useful in addressing important issues in section 316(b) of the 1972 Federal Water Pollution Control Act are illustrated in this report through the analysis and evaluation of the Prairie Island Nuclear Station 316(b) data base. The main issues in 316(b) demonstrations, cooling water intake operation and location, involve determining the impacts of entrainment and impingement. Entrainment impacts were addressed by applying the 'equivalent adult' approach and correcting for inherent biases and by determining the through-plant survival of zooplankton. An assessment of impingement impacts was made by comparing for each of various species the number of fish impinged to estimates of population size. Densities of plankton and fish were compared between the intake area and an alternate area to determine if the location of the present intake minimizes impacts. No definitive conclusion relative to the best location of the intake could be made because of high year to year variability in the data and the differential dominance of trophic groups between areas."--Abstract.

Scientists spent more than 15 years studying the physical and chemical characteristics and biological productivity of the estuary and documenting the abundance, distribution, and life histories of the major fish species. New sampling equipment and analytical methods were developed. Sophisticated models of the striped bass and other importanat Hudson River fish populations were developed. Most of the results of these studies are buried in contractor reports, magnetic tape libraries, and hearings transcripts. Our objective in producing this monograph is to make this information accessible to the scientific community. Our intent is to 1) summarize the scientific issues and approaches; 2) Present the significant results of the Hudson River biological studies; 3) describe the role of the studies in the decision-making process; 4) evaluate the successes and failures of the studies, and 5) present recommendations for future estuarine impact assessments.

Power Plants: Effects on Fish and Shellfish Behavior reviews the effects of power plant construction, operation, and maintenance on the behavior of fish and important shellfish populations such as blue crabs, crayfish, lobsters, penaeid shrimp, and bivalve molluscs. The emphasis is on the link between power plant design and fish aggregation phenomena. The effects of biocides and temperature on fish behavior are also examined. This book is comprised of 13 chapters and begins with a discussion on the economic relevance of power plants and their environmental impact on fish and shellfish populations. The potential of power generating facilities to act as a physical stimulus for fish aggregation is then considered. The effect of parameters associated with power plants, such as temperature and biocides, on fish behavior is the subject of subsequent chapters. The ecological and behavioral characteristics influencing entrainment of fish eggs and young at cooling water intakes are analyzed. This monograph is oriented to those involved in assessment of power plants on aquatic communities, including consultants, state and federal regulators, and electrical utility personnel, as well as researchers in physiology, ecology, and ethology.