With publication of final regulations by the United States
Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") in the Federal
Register, the rules under Section 316(b) of the Clean Water Act
governing the use of cooling water at existing power plants and
industrial facilities are effective on October 14, 2014 (the
"Final Rule").
Section 316(b) requires that the location, design, construction and
capacity of Cooling Water Intake Structures ("CWISs")
reflect the best technology available ("BTA") for
minimizing adverse environmental impacts. EPA states that the Final
Rule will affect approximately 1,065 existing facilities, including
544 electric generators and 509 manufacturers.
The Final Rule applies to existing facilities that withdraw more
than 2 million gallons per day of water from the waters of the
United States and that use at least 25 percent of this water
exclusively for equipment cooling purposes. The Final Rule's
requirements address the potential adverse environmental impacts--
impingement and entrainment-- associated with the use of CWISs at
existing facilities.
The Final Rule requires a permittee to select one of seven options
to meet BTA for reducing impingement mortality. Impingement
mortality occurs as aquatic organisms in cooling water meet a
facility's intake screens.
The Final Rule sets forth a national BTA standard for reducing
entrainment. Entrainment occurs when aquatic organisms are drawn
through a facility's cooling water system. The national
standard is a process for conducting a site-specific determination
of entrainment mitigation requirements at existing CWISs. The
EPA's assessment is that there is no single technology that is
the BTA for entrainment at existing facilities. Instead, the
site-specific determination process considers a number of factors.
Site-specific decision-making could lead to a determination by the
EPA or by a state permitting authority that entrainment reduction
requirements should be based on the incorporation of variable-speed
pumps, water reuse, fine-mesh screens, a closed-cycle recirculating
system or some combination of technologies that constitutes the BTA
for the individual site. Alternatively, the site-specific process
could lead to a determination that no additional technologies are
required at an existing facility.
The EPA announced the Final Rule in May 2014. (A Day Pitney Alert on May 21, 2014, summarized
the key provisions of the Final Rule.) The Final Rule was published
in the Federal Register on August 14, 2014, and is effective 60
days following this publication. It is available here.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
