Earth Equity News

New York Rules Indian Point's Cooling System Kills Too Many Fish. AP, August 25, 2008. "The huge numbers of fish sucked to their death by the cooling system at the Indian Point nuclear plant prove that the system harms the Hudson River environment... [ruled] J. Jared Snyder, assistant commissioner of the [New York] Department of Environmental Conservation... [It] is a victory for plant critics who claim that up to 1.2 billion fish and eggs are killed each year as the plant continuously draws in river water for use as a coolant. 'For decades, Indian Point has maintained that its cooling systems have no impact on Hudson River fish,' said Robert Goldstein [of]...Riverkeeper. 'At long last, the DEC has put an end to this fiction.' Snyder said that even the lowest estimate of fish deaths -- 900,000 annually - 'represents excessive fish kills' and establishes an adverse environmental impact. The ruling... means the plant's owner, Entergy Nuclear, may no longer raise the environmental-impact issue as it battles the state's order to build costly towers that recycle cooling water and make big river intakes unnecessary... The towers, known as closed-cycle cooling, could cost Entergy more than $1.6 billion... [and] Entergy will continue to argue against [them]."