Chalk point cooling tower project: effects of simulated saline cooling tower drift on woody species. Master's thesis

Technical Report · Fri Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1977

OSTI ID:6409722

Francis, B A

Cooling towers of power plants are used to dissipate waste heat into the atmosphere. If saline water is used for cooling, a saline aerosol known as drift is released into the atmosphere. Drift effects on vegetation are not well known. To simulate drift for a field study, cooling tower basin water was sprayed thirty separate times during a 46-day period in 1975 on Virginia pine (Pinus virginiana), flowering dogwood (Cornus florida), tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipfera), and California privet (Ligustrum ovalifolium), Norway spruce (Picea abies), and white ash (Fraxinus americana) were added in 1976 and all trees were sprayed 43 times during a 59-day period. Only dogwood leaves showed significant injury. Absence of injury on other species was probably due to the ability of their leaves to exclude, or reduce absorption of, toxic concentrations of the ions supplied.

• Research Organization: Johns Hopkins Univ., Laurel, MD (USA). Applied Physics Lab.
• OSTI ID: 6409722
• Report Number(s): PB-284214
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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CENTRAL REGION
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SALINITY
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SHRUBS
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