The

Illinois

C

American

RECEIVED

CLERK’S OFFICE

MAY

18

2001

STATE OF ILLINOIS

Pollution

Control Board

Illinois Pollution Control

Board,

Hearing Officer

100 West

Randolph,

Suite 11-500

Chicago,

IL 60601

Dear

Board

Members,

The Illinois Chapter

of the

American

Fisheries Society

is

a not for profit

professional organization with over 200

members

who support the conservation

and stewardship of fisheries and aquatic ecosVstemsin

Illinois.

We

appreciate the

opportunity to provide

comment

on

proposed new 35

III.

Adm.

Code 301.109,

which would develop

a process

to allow provisional

variances for power

companies

to

exceed tliermal limits for

up to 45 days

in

any calender year.

Illinois’ thermal

regujations were designed to

provide

protection to

aquatic life

while allowing power 9enerating stations to

provide the electricity our industries

and

homes demand.

The cooling

lakes associated

with

our electrical generation

industry provide

a vital recreational resource to

the

people of

Illinois.

In

many cases

these lakes

are modifications of

previously existing

natural systems.

Numerous

studies

have shown that elevated

thermal discharges

can effect the ecology of our

lakes

and

streams.

These

effects

are currently of brief enough

duration to allow

robust fish populations to occur in Illinois’cooling

lakes and

in

our streams

below

thermal

ouiialis.

Recently,

in

1 99~,

provisional variances were

used

in

Coffeen

and

Newton

Lakes,

and

these variances

led directly to

fish kills.

We

believe it

is

inappropriate

to allow variances that will lead to fish kills or damage other

natural

resources.

We agree that there needs to

be

an

opportunity for the

electrical generation

industry to

have emergency

relief from thermal standards to protect the

health

and

welfare of

Illinois citizens.

This

relief should not, however

be extended for

purely

economic or competitive

reasons.

The request

for variance should

be

accompanied

by evidence that the

need

is for

an

emergency within the State

of Illinois

and

is

not

an opport&nity~to sell

power outside the

service

area.

Given the

high risk to

Illinois’

aquatic and recreational resources,

any such

provisional

variance from thermal

standards

should

be stringently controlled and

well documented.

founded

1963

---

If the

proposed code

is

approved, then

additional

measures

should

be

required:

1)

the petitioner should

be required

to continuously monitor

temperature

and

dissolved

oxygen at all

intakes

and discharges,

and

during the most

critical periods when the

variance

is

in effect visually

inspect

all

effected areas of water every 3 hours throughout the day

and night

when the

variance

is

in

effect.

A plan

should

be

in

place

and

steps

should

be taken to

immediately reduce thermal discharges

if

any evidence

of

a fish

kill

should occur.

During

summertime

conditions,

lethal temperatures are already

present

in the

discharges

of our generating facilities.

Under these conditions motile

fauna

like

fish crowd into those portions

of the

cooling

lake that

have adequate

dissolved oxygen

and temperature to sustain life.

Non-mobile aquatic

organisms

die.

A small

increase

in

discharge temperature

or volume,

or

a decrease

in dissolved oxygen content

under these conditions can

and

has had

disastrous effects.

2) the

petitioner should

develop and

implement

a

response and

recovery plan

approved

by the agency

and the

Illinois

Department of

Natural

Resources to address

any

adverse environmental impact due to

thermal

conditions resulting from

a provisional variance.

3) there

should

be

a

clear delineation of what

Illinois waters will

be

subjected to

provisional thermal variances.

We

are

strongly opposed

to the

issuance of

provisional thermal

variances for direct

discharges

into Illinois

streams, rivers or

Lake Michigan.

These

waters contain

diverse species

assemblages including

coolwater species that could

not withstand

the

additional thermal loading associated

with

provisional

thermal variances.

In

addition, the

Illinois Chapter of the American

Fisheries

Society agrees

with

the additional

reporting requirements

discussed

in the

Illinois

EPA

proposal,

and

asks that these requirements

be mandatory to

any approved

provisional thermal

variances.

Several

new natural

gas fired generating facilities

are currently

under

construction

or have just been completed which

are designed to

meet peak

generating

needs

while introducing

little or

no thermal load to our aquatic systems.

Many of these facilities

are so efficient that no

mixing zone

is required to

meet

existing standards.

Illinois’top 4 power

companies testified recently

that there

is

now adequate generating

capacity to meet

any

conceivable demand

this summer.

This means that at present

adequate capacity exists with current standards,

and

even

more generating capacity

is under construction

within the

State.

Given the

abundant supply of energy within the state

of Illinois,

and the

risks associated with

provisional

variances for thermal effects,

we believe that the

Board

should be very

cautious

in

it’sdevelopment of

rules to

govern them.

---

We appreciate the opportunity to provide

our organization’scomments to the

Illinois Pollution Control

Board.

We would strongly urge

the

Board to

act to

protect

Illinois’invaluable aquatic

resources

and insure that any

action taken is

in

full

compliance with

the

Clean Water Act.

Sincerely,

~

4

Dan

Sallee

President,

Illinois

AES

702

N.W.

9th

Ave

Aledo,

IL 61231

cc:

Lynn

Padovan,

IEC

Aiben~

Ettinger.

Sierra Club

Jeff Stein,

American

Rivers

John Tranquilli

Mike Hooe

Vic Santucci

Gary

Lutterbie

Dr.

David

Bergerhouse