Economic and environmental impacts of proposed changes to Clean Water Act thermal discharge requirements

Conference · Wed Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 1994

OSTI ID:10159165

Veil, J A

This paper examines the economic and environmental impact to the power industry of limiting thermal mixing zones to 1000 feet and eliminating the Clean Water Act {section}316(a) variance. Power companies were asked what they would do if these two conditions were imposed. Most affected plants would retrofit cooling towers and some would retrofit diffusers. Assuming that all affected plants would proportionally follow the same options as the surveyed plants, the estimated capital cost of retrofitting cooling towers or diffusers at all affected plants exceeds $20 billion. Since both cooling towers and diffusers exert an energy penalty on a plant`s output, the power companies must generate additional power. The estimated cost of the additional power exceeds $10 billion over 20 years. Generation of the extra power would emit over 8 million tons per year of additional carbon dioxide. Operation of the new cooling towers would cause more than 1.5 million gallons per minute of additional evaporation.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab., IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-31109-ENG-38
• OSTI ID: 10159165
• Report Number(s): ANL/EA/CP-81525; CONF-9410128-1; ON: DE94013420
• Resource Relation: Conference: WEFTEC `94,Chicago, IL (United States),18 Oct 1994; Other Information: PBD: [1994]
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS
CLEAN WATER ACTS
COMPLIANCE
THERMAL EFFLUENTS
REGULATIONS
DIFFUSERS
RETROFITTING
COOLING TOWERS
ECONOMICS
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
FOSSIL-FUEL POWER PLANTS
210800
200600
200700
ECONOMIC, INDUSTRIAL, AND BUSINESS ASPECTS
LEGISLATION AND REGULATIONS