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REGULATORY AGENCIES, NEPCO AGREE TO SHORT TERM MEASURES ON BRAYTON POINT POWER STATION

Release Date: 02/06/1997
Contact Information: Mark Stein, (617) 565-3169

BOSTON -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management and New England Power Company today agreed on implementing a series of short-term measures regarding the operation of the Brayton Point Station power plant in Somerset, Mass. located on Mount Hope Bay.

The short term measures -- agreed upon following months of intense negotiations -- will allow modifications to be made to the plant's operations while the parties continue to hammer out longer-term revisions to the power station's discharge permit.

Under the agreement signed today, the Brayton Point Station will reduce the power plant's cooling water intake flow in order to minimize the amount of fish and other marine life that are destroyed or injured by being drawn into the plant's intake system. The agreement also places limitations on the amount of thermal discharge into Mount Hope Bay, which will reduce the plant's effect on water temperatures in the bay. The power company also agreed to conduct a variety of studies to increase the knowledge about environmental conditions in the bay, as well as to determine the role Brayton Point had in influencing those conditions.

"These measures are an important first step toward the recovery of the winter flounder and improved environmental protection for the bay even as we continue constructive negotiations that will enable us to reach a long term solution to this complex issue," said John P. DeVillars, administrator of the EPA's New England office. "Although these measures buy us some time to more closely evaluate the situation and formulate the next steps, we do not believe they are an adequate resolution to the problem. We're working hard to come up with a long term plan."

"Today's interim agreement demonstrates that when state and federal regulators work with major utilities, the environment can be protected. In this case, we are laying the groundwork for protecting the spawning season for winter flounder," said Massachusetts Environmental Affairs Secretary Trudy

Coxe. "While we work with the power plant on this issue we continue to look at the full range of pollution problems in Mt. Hope Bay because the fish will not return to the Bay until all the pollution problems are gone."

"This agreement reflects the unparalleled and ongoing cooperation that all of the parties involved have displayed," said Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner David B. Struhs. "We're optimistic that by continuing to work together, we will protect the water quality in Mount Hope Bay for the benefit of both residents and marine life, while ensuring the continued operation of one of the region's most important power plants."

"Today's agreement is an important first step toward modifying the power plant's operations so that we can reduce the damage it is causing to to the valuable Mount Hope Bay ecosystem," said DEM Director Timothy R.E. Keeney. "What's especially satisfying about this agreement is that there is a clear consensus among all the regulatory agencies that the DEM study was sound, and that the power plant was impacting the ecosystem and that substantive corrective actions are necessary."

"We're part of this voluntary agreement because we recognize that the restoration of Mount Hope Bay is important to the region. We want to work with all the parties to identify the real problems so that we can get the right solutions in place," said Jeffrey Tranen, President of New England Power Company. "There have been other substantive sources of impact on the Bay including sewerage overflows, runoff from farming and septic systems, and over fishing. The question needs to be answered whether, or to what extent, operational changes at Brayton Point Station will help restore a healthy fishery in Mount Hope Bay," Tranen added.

Negotiations leading to the agreement began late last year after a Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management report concluded that an increase in the power company's operations 10 years ago coincided with a massive decline in Mount Hope Bay's finfish population. Some species have decreased as much as 86 percent since 1985.

The agreement will remain in effect from Feb. 6 through April 2, when the EPA and Massachusetts DEP intend to take next steps in a long term revision of the Brayton Point discharge permit as required under the federal Clean Water Act.

The studies the power company will conduct include:

• A model that examines the movement of the thermal plume and to what extent it affects dissolved oxygen and water temperatures in Mount Hope Bay;
• Identification of representative important species and critical temperatures that affect survival, reproduction and migration;
• Population model for representative important species;
• Development of additional data on Brayton Point Station entrainment and impingement rates;
• Winter Flounder tagging studies;
• Comparative analysis of alternative technologies for reducing thermal loading to Mount Hope Bay, meeting water quality standards, and for minimizing adverse environmental impact of cooling water withdrawals from the bay.