EPA Publishes Cooling Water Intake Rules

electric power plant

by | Aug 18, 2014

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electric power plantThe EPA is moving forward with rules to protect fish from being sucked into cooling water intakes at large power plants and factories.

The EPA had said it was finalizing the standards in May, but did not publish them in the Federal Register until Thursday.

The final rule establishes requirements under the Clean Water Act for all existing power generating facilities and existing manufacturing and industrial facilities that withdraw more than 2 million gallons per day of water from waters of the US and use at least 25 percent of the water they withdraw exclusively for cooling purposes.

This rule covers about 1,065 existing facilities — 521 of these facilities are factories, and the other 544 are power plants. The technologies required under the rule have are in use at over 40 percent of facilities.

 Photo Credit: electric power plant via Shutterstock

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