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December 1, 2008
Indian Point case heads to Supreme Court tomorrow

Greg Clary
The Journal News
The Indian Point nuclear plant's impact on the Hudson River will be central
to a case heading for the country's highest court tomorrow - and a final
decision could affect operations at 550 power plants across the U.S.
The U.S. Supreme Court's nine justices are set to hear Entergy Corp. v.
Riverkeeper Inc., a battle over whether the Clean Water Act allows federal
regulators to weigh costs, as well as benefits, when protecting the
environment.
New Orleans-based Entergy, which is the plant's owner, and the energy
industry think costs should be considered.
Environmentalists do not.
At issue for Indian Point is a technology the plant uses to take in Hudson
River water, use it to cool its operations and return warmer water to the
eco-system.
It requires billions of gallons of water every day and dooms fish eggs and
smaller species of fish that get caught in the plant's intake, according to
environmentalists.
Entergy officials say 25 years and $50 million of government-supervised
studies show otherwise.
"The once-through cooling intakes of Hudson River power plants, which
withdraw 5 billion gallons of water each day, have had a devastating effect on
the
river's ecosystem," said Alex Matthiessen, the Hudson Riverkeeper and
president of the nonprofit organization. "The Clean Water Act clearly mandates
the
use of 'best technology available' without regard to cost-benefit comparisons
and was intended to address precisely these types of impacts."
Matthiessen said the Supreme Court has the opportunity to weigh in on an
important environmental issue.
Across the country, 550 power plants use such cooling technology, and if the
court decides costs must be left out of the equation, billions of dollars
must be spent to retrofit existing facilities to meet federal Environmental
Protection Agency regulations.
Four power plants on the Hudson River - Indian Point, Danskammer, Roseton
and Bowline - use the "once-through" cooling, as it is called.
Indian Point officials have estimated that replacing that technology with
towers that use much less river water and circulating the water through a
closed internal cooling system would cost the company more than $1 billion and
require shutting down electricity generation for months, as well dynamiting
bedrock to prepare the Buchanan site.
The renovation might also include moving buried natural gas lines, which
company officials said would be another potential problem for the environment.
"The Clean Water Act isn't specific to cooling towers. It doesn't prescribe
or proscribe," said Entergy spokesman Jim Steets at Indian Point. "What we
believe the court and the federal agency carrying out the act should do is take
a common-sense approach that includes weighing the costs and the benefits."
Riverkeeper and its supporters have won their case in the lower courts.
Entergy appealed to the Supreme Court after losing in the district courts,
but the court - which hears only about one appeal from every 100 made - opted
to examine only the cost-benefit question.
Even after the presentations that each side will make tomorrow, justices are
not likely to issue a ruling until spring, lawyers said. The Supreme Court
session ends in June.
The Supreme Court decision will have significant implications for power
plants across the country, but the stakes are particularly high for Indian
Point.
Entergy, the plant's owner, is already fighting with New York state over
permits to release warmer water into the Hudson; the state is concerned about
the system's effect on the river's fish population.
The environmental impact on the Hudson River could end up as a key element
in Indian Point's efforts to extend its license to create electricity at the
site for another 20 years, to 2035.
Should the Supreme Court side with Riverkeeper and its supporters, the
company would have to put in closed-cycle cooling and, at the very least, amend
its application before its first license expires in 2013. It could also choose
not to continue its operations at the site.

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