|  | | | | COASTAL NEWS | | 01/29/2007
SURFRIDER FOUNDATION WINS LANDMARK DECISION TO HELP MARINE SPECIES
EPA Faulted for Placing Power Plant Profits Over Public Trust
San Clemente, CA (January 29, 2007) – Surfrider Foundation announced today that it has won a decision in the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals against the Federal Environmental Protection Agency. The court struck down a rule issued by the EPA for inadequately enforcing the Clean Water Act in regards to the use of “once through” cooling systems by coastal generators across the United States. The decision is a victory for the Surfrider Foundation, who along with a number of other environmental organizations and State Attorney General, was co-plaintiff on the suit lead by the Riverkeeper organization.
Once-though cooling systems take in billions of gallons of river, lake and coastal water to cool power plant machinery. Along with the water, these intakes devour fish and other small marine life, resulting in the death and destruction of billions of tons of marine animals a year.
In its ruling, the court found that in 2004 the EPA improperly issued regulations that were contrary to the Clean Water Act’s mandate to force industries towards adopting the “best technology available” for reducing environmental impacts.
One such example is “closed-cycle” cooling; a technology that cools plant machinery while nearly eliminating the need for large infusions of fresh or sea water. Environmentalists contend that implementation of this technology would greatly reduce the massive fish kills associated with power plant operations. The court also found that EPA violated the law by placing the profits of power companies above the protection of America’s fisheries, defying the direct mandate of Congress in 1972 to EPA to stop this unnecessary destruction of healthy oceans.
"Our members, both those who fish and those of us who just want to leave a healthy ocean for future generations, are ecstatic about this decision," said Jim Moriarty of the Surfrider Foundation. "This landmark decision will motivate us to do even more to restore and protect our coast and ocean."
The Surfrider Foundation has also been working for several years to fight the use of once-through cooling as “source water” for ocean desalination, as well as advocating for alternatives to desalination including improved water conservation and greater implementation of wastewater reclamation -- as well as alternative technology and practices for implementing desalination.
Surfrider Foundation’s Southern California Regional Manager Joe Geever explains, “With this ruling, desalination plants should no longer be co-located with power plants. It doesn’t make sense to prevent the destruction of marine life by the power industry just to have desalination step in and continue the destruction. Now, water agencies will be more likely to look into alternative solutions – solutions that also reduce ocean pollution.”
The winning coalition of Environmental Petitioners included: Riverkeeper, Inc., Natural Resources Defense Council, Waterkeeper Alliance, Soundkeeper, Inc., Scenic Hudson, Inc., Save The Bay—People For Narragansett Bay, Friends of Casco Bay, American Littoral Society, Delaware Riverkeeper Network, Hackensack Riverkeeper, Inc., New York/New Jersey Baykeeper, Santa Monica Baykeeper, San Diego Baykeeper, California Coastkeeper Alliance, Columbia Riverkeeper, Conservation Law Foundation, and Surfrider Foundation.
The Surfrider Foundation is a non-profit grassroots organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of our world’s oceans, waves and beaches. Founded in 1984 by a handful of visionary surfers, the Surfrider Foundation now maintains over 50,000 members and over 60 chapters across the United States and Puerto Rico, with international affiliates in Australia, Europe, Japan and Brazil. To find out more about the Surfrider Foundation please visit www.surfrider.org
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