BOSTON (Legal Newsline) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the release of a draft water discharge permit for the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, Mass.
The permit will help regulate the intake of cooling water and the discharge of heat and other waste pollutants prior to the shutdown of the plant. The EPA will accept public comment on the draft of the permit for 62 days before it goes into effect.
Before this, the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station relied on an existing National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit from 1991. This permit regulates the way the facility withdraws water from Cape Cod Bay for cooling purposes and the way it discharges waste through wastewater systems.
The new permit will contain limitations and conditions for each of the outfalls as well as conditions related to water withdrawal from Cape Cod Bay. The goal of the permit is to make sure that the plant’s Cooling Water Intake System reflects the best technology available for minimizing adverse environmental impact.
Electricity generation operations at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station are expected to cease by June 1, 2019.
The permit is available for public review and comment on the EPA’s website.