Coal-fired power plant to implement a stricter environmental policy

Dominion Energy Brayton Point LLC, a Massachusetts power plant has agreed to abide by a new environmental permit, requiring them to limit the water usage drawn from surrounding rivers and the release of hot water into Mount Hope Bay.

Currently the plant draws in about a billion gallons of water into the system daily killing fish larvae and eggs.  The water is then used to cool equipment and then dumped into Mount Hope Bay at a temperature around 95 degrees which can increase the bay’s temperature by 5 degrees.  As a result, scientists have found that the fish population in the bay has gone down by 80 to 85 percent.

The plant denied any allegations concerning their impact on the bay, however, through a process of several appeals and the US Environmental Agency’s persistence, the power plant agreed to the new permit. 

Dominion Energy Brayton Point has until 2012 to implement a close-cycle cooling system in their plant in order to better cool their equipment to abide by the new permit.