I recently moved to a part of Rhode Island that is very close to this power station. When I first saw these two huge towers, I got nervous. “Am I living near a nuclear reactor?” Turns out it was my director who was in charge of getting these cooling towers built in the first place. They help to dramatically reduce the amount of cooling water the station uses from Mt. Hope Bay, thereby minimizing the thermal impact on the bay. A closed-loop system reduces the required amount of cooling water by more than 90 percent.
I grew up on the Atlantic Ocean and living near the water has always been important to me. To work with an organization that wants to continue to keep our waters clean, and to know that I can feel safe that our natural habitats have support from CLF means the world to me. Now when I drive to the beach and friends ask me what those big towers are, I proudly tell them, “My boss did that!”
Rob Leeson
Thanks for the great photo and reminder of what an important effort and success this was for CLF and their partner on the project, Save The Bay.
The quality of the air from these ancient coal burning facilities was debilitating to people within a 30 mile radius and was well documented by the Harvard School of Public Health. And the extremely hot (90 degree) water coming from the cooling system was doing a serious number on the sea life in the area. Satellite photos clearly showed the plume of hot water flowing for miles…..and small fish and other marine organisms were regularly sucked into the cooling system intake, either to die by being held in its grip, or being cooked if they were small enough to go through the mesh.
The new towers were a result of the long efforts of the RI Office of CLF, the Boston Office of CLF, Save The Bay and some citizen organizations in the Fall River area.
Most of this story has been long forgotten…and should be re-published in more complete detail.
Karen Wood
@Kim and Rob, you might be interested to know that in another part of New England today, CLF’s long-running fight on the water issues associated with coal plants led EPA to issue a tough new draft NPDES permit for Merrimack Station in Bow, New Hampshire. EPA will require Public Service Company of New Hampshire (PSNH), the plant’s owner, to install a modern closed-cycle cooling system that will reduce the amount of heated water it discharges into the Merrimack River by nearly 100 percent. Another reason to be proud! You can read our blog post about it at http://www.clf.org/blog/clean-energy-climate-change/epa-will-require-psnh-to-build-cooling-towers-at-merrimack-station/.
Kim
Excellent news!