Calling all fisherman who want to protect marine life in Barnegat Bay, Oyster Creek and Forked River: The NJ DEP is holding final hearing on Oyster Creek nuclear power plant’s water discharge permit the evening of October 24^th in Toms River. 

A host of statewide and local environmental groups, including Jersey Coast Angler’s Association, are organizing a rally before the hearing so we can make our voices heard in addition to giving testimony at the hearing itself.  Please attend both the rally and the hearing, and encourage your friends and family to come with you. 

The rally will start at 5 pm, on Monday, October 24^th, outside the Ocean County Administration Building at 101 Hooper Ave in Toms River, rain or shine.   Following the rally, the hearing will be held inside building from 6-9 pm. 

Oyster Creek’s water permit, issued every five years by the NJ DEP, has been expired for a year and a half. The plant’s current cooling system, in violation of the Clean Water Act, intakes 1.4 billion gallons a day and kills 13 million fish and shellfish and an estimated tens of millions of additional larvae annually. 

The best way to solve this problem is to require the plant to install a closed-loop cooling system that reduces water intake and discharge by over 95%. A closed-loop system will also eliminate fish kills caused by thermal shock from the discharge, stop the dumping of over 365 tons of toxic chlorine into the bay annually, and create hundreds of jobs during construction. 

Unfortunately, the NJ DEP’s draft permit describes the closed-loop system as the “preferred alternative,” but also gives Exelon a fall back option—the “restoration” of 3,500 acres of wetlands.  This draft permit is simply unacceptable, and we need your help to ensure that the NJ DEP’s final permit is one that requires Oyster Creek to complete installation of a closed-loop cooling system by the end of 2008.

Your attendance at the rally will send a clear message to the NJ DEP that the best way to address the needs of the marine population of Barnegat Bay, Oyster Creek and Forked River is to require Oyster Creek plant to comply with the Clean Water Act and install a closed-loop cooling system right away.   

Please RSVP to let us know if you’ll be attending the rally and/or the hearing by contacting Tom Fote at tfote@jcaa.org or 732-506-6565. 

If you cannot attend the rally and hearing on the 24th, please send your comments to the NJDEP by sending a letter on or before November 6, 2005.  A sample letter is below.

Howard B. Tompkins, Chief
Attention: Comments on Public Notice NJ0005550
Bureau of Point Source Permitting, Region 1
P.O. Box 029
Trenton, NJ 08625

Howard.Tompkins@dep.state.nj.us

 

Dear Mr. Tompkins:

I am writing regarding the draft permit for the Oyster Creek nuclear powerplant to discharge into the Barnegat Bay estuary, and to request that theNew Jersey Department of Environmental Protection select the Preferred Alternative and reject Alternative #2.

The Preferred Alternative will require Exelon to install the best available technology, a closed-loop cooling system at the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant.

A closed-loop system will:

Save trillions of animals -- including 13 million fish and shellfish PER YEAR such as: blue crabs, striped bass, winter flounder, bluefish, grass and sand shrimp, blackfish, bay anchovies, menhaden, spot, and spearing.

Eliminate fish kills caused by thermal shock from the discharge.

Stop the dumping of up to 365 tons of toxic chlorine into the bayper year.

Create hundreds of jobs building the new closed-loop system including cooling towers.

Exelon's current once-through system is in violation of the Clean Water Act.  Exelon is one of the nation's largest electric utilities with $15 billion in annual revenues and expectation of generating $3.7 billion of cash between 2004-2006 after funding capital expenditures.  They have the resources to install the closed-loop system and should be required to do so by the end of 2008.

The current system decreases the quality of Barnegat Bay and to kills millions of young fish, larvae, turtles each year. This system removes and destroys 1.4 billion gallons of life-rich estuarine waters from Barnegat Bay and discharges 1.4 billion gallons of chlorinated, super-heated, nearly lifeless wastewater EACH DAY.

Please take action to protect the Barnegat Bay estuary from the harmful effects of the Oyster Creek nuclear power plan by selecting the Preferred Alternative and rejecting Alternative #2. This will protect water quality and wildlife for our families, for our future. 

Yours truly, Your name Address Phone