GLIN==> New study evaluates impacts of power plants on Great Lakes water resources

For immediate release: November 1, 2011

 

New study evaluates impacts of power plants on Great Lakes water resources 

http://www.glc.org/announce/11/11glew.html 

 

Ann Arbor, Mich. -  Can and should impacts on water sources used to generate
electricity help drive future energy production policy in the Great Lakes
basin?

 

Can and should impacts on water sources used to generate electricity help
drive future energy production policy in the Great Lakes basin?

 

Approximately 90 percent of the electrical power in the basin is produced by
thermoelectric plants, which use 26 billion gallons of water a day for
cooling. So, the question is a significant one, particularly for inland
lakes, streams and aquifers potentially vulnerable to lower flow rates
projected in some climate change models.

 

A recently completed research project by the Great Lakes Commission took up
this and related questions as part of the Commission’s Great Lakes
Energy-Water Nexus (GLEW) Initiative, sponsored by the Great Lakes
Protection Fund. The Initiative examined how water withdrawal or consumption
associated with power production could impact the health of the Great Lakes
basin’s rivers and streams. Findings from this 18-month effort are
summarized in the report Integrating Energy and Water Resources Decision
Making in the Great Lakes Basin: An Examination of Future Power Generation
Scenarios and Water Resource Impacts.

 

“Although most water used for power generation in the basin comes directly
from the Great Lakes, about one-quarter uses water from groundwater or a
Great Lakes tributary. That’s not insignificant,” said Dr. Vincent Tidwell,
principle member of the technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories and
a technical adviser to the project.

 

The report synthesizes several background reports examining technical and
policy aspects of power and water in the Great Lakes basin. The technical
analysis examines how changes in the type of power generation could affect
sensitive watersheds in the future. That analysis is complemented by a
review of relevant water and energy policies that identifies gaps and
opportunities for improvements.

 

New metrics developed as part of the project revealed that approximately
one-quarter of all of the watersheds in the Great Lakes basin may be
ecologically vulnerable to water withdrawals under certain “low-flow”
conditions – conditions that are likely to be more frequent in the future as
the impacts of climate change become more severe.

 

Additionally, more than half (57 percent) of the 102 watersheds studied were
found to be at moderate to high risk of degrading ecological health due to
additional thermal impacts, and 36 percent have water quality that is
moderately to highly impaired according to U.S. EPA and state reports. All
told, one-fifth of the Great Lakes basin’s sub-watersheds rank high for two
or more of these risk factors.

 

Professor Mark Bain of Cornell University, another project partner, said:
“Because of the Great Lakes Energy-Water Nexus project, we now know which
areas in the basin are most susceptible to ecological impairment from new
water uses, including power production.”

 

Using a model developed by Sandia National Laboratories, five future power
scenarios were analyzed for the period 2007 to 2035: 1) Business as usual,
including use of open-loop cooling where water used for cooling is returned
to the river, lake or aquifer from which it was withdrawn; 2) no new
open-loop cooling; 3) open-loop cooling totally prohibited; 4) a renewable
energy portfolio with 50 percent wind, 25 percent biofuel and 25 percent
natural gas; and 5) that same portfolio with carbon capture and
sequestration.

 

For all five scenarios, water withdrawals would decrease, but by far the
largest decreases (87 percent) would occur where there is no open-loop
cooling at all. In every case except the open-loop cooling prohibited,
thermoelectric water withdrawals would continue to be the basin’s
predominant water use through 2035.

 

In contrast, consumptive water use would increase under all five scenarios
with the largest increase in consumptive use (24 percent) occurring under
the carbon capture and sequestration scenario, in part due to increased
water required for this process.

 

The lowest increase in consumptive use (7.6 percent) would occur under the
renewable energy portfolio, reflecting the considerably lower water use
associated with natural gas combined cycle technologies as well as wind
power generation, which uses no water. Under all scenarios, consumptive uses
from the thermoelectric power sector would be lower when compared to
industrial and municipal water use sectors.

 

“These energy scenarios were helpful in examining futures where water
availability to support new power production might conflict with water
needed to support ecological health,” said Dick Munson, public affairs chief
for the Illinois firm Recycled Energy Development. “They show that even in
the water-rich Great Lakes basin, there are pockets of vulnerability due to
inadequate water supply.”

 

The GLEW project highlighted the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water
Resources Compact, established by the eight Great Lakes states, as an
important step for managing water withdrawals. The report noted several
areas where state implementation of the Compact could have important
implications for water and energy usage, including conditioning prior
approval of water withdrawals on environmental review; lower withdrawal
thresholds, particularly in vulnerable areas or at-risk watersheds; and
consumptive reviews as part of an application for a water withdrawal permit.

 

Federally authorized agencies such as the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission (FERC) and Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs) were
identified as potentially important institutions for analyzing and
predicting the ways in which water resources are used for power generation.
The GLEW analysis also identified several ways for public utility
commissions to evaluate environmental impacts and use those results in
decisionmaking, including requiring periodic water resource impact studies.

 

According to Tim Eder, executive director of the Great Lakes Commission:
“The GLEW project takes us one step further in our understanding of how our
energy choices today could impact our water resources in the future.”

 

Contact: Victoria Pebbles

Email: vpebbles at glc.org 

Office: 734-971-9135

 

 

### 

 

The Great Lakes Energy-Water Nexus project was led by the Great Lakes
Commission with guidance from an expert team of researchers, policy analysts
and technical advisers. Principal partners included Cornell University,
Sandia National Laboratories, the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center and
the Environmental Law and Policy Center. Funding support was provided by the
Great Lakes Protection Fund. The summary report and background papers can be
found at www.glc.org/energy/glew.

 

 

The Great Lakes Commission, chaired by James Tierney (NY), assistant
commissioner for water resources at the New York State Department of
Environmental Conservation, is an interstate compact agency established
under state and U.S. federal law and dedicated to promoting a strong
economy, healthy environment and high quality of life for the Great
Lakes-St. Lawrence region and its residents. The Commission consists of
governors' appointees, state legislators, and agency officials from its
eight member states. Associate membership for Ontario and Québec was
established through the signing of a "Declaration of Partnership." The
Commission maintains a formal Observer program involving U.S. and Canadian
federal agencies, tribal authorities, binational agencies and other regional
interests. The Commission offices are located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Learn
more at www.glc.org.

 

 

Christine Manninen
Communications / GLIN Director
http://www.great-lakes.net <http://www.great-lakes.net/> 
Great Lakes Commission
Ann Arbor, Mich.
Office 734.971.9135

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.great-lakes.net/lists/glin-announce/attachments/20111101/d8097a2c/attachment.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: FINAL-GLEWNewsRelease-20111101.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 440173 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://www.great-lakes.net/lists/glin-announce/attachments/20111101/d8097a2c/attachment.pdf