Press Release - Friday, March 23, 2012
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Illinois EPA grants Exelon Braidwood Station Provisional Variance from Discharge Requirements
Springfield—The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) has granted the Exelon Generation’s Braidwood Station a provisional variance from the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) water discharge permitted temperature limits, due to recent unseasonably warm weather conditions.
Braidwood Station is a nuclear-fueled steam electric generating facility located approximately five miles from the Kankakee River at Braceville. Circulating water used to cool and condense steam from the generating process is ultimately discharged into a cooling pond, then to the Kankakee River. It does not come into contact with any radioactive components and does not have any impact on radiation risk.
Exelon’s NPDES permit places limits the temperature of the effluent versus the temperature of the river water during a given season, and gives Braidwood an allowance of excursion hours it can use if its discharge exceeds the temperature. Because of recent record breaking warm weather, the river temperature at the intake has exceeded temperature standards; therefore the capacity of the river to dissipate heat has been reduced, causing the facility to exhaust the permitted excursion hours.
During the variance period, Braidwood Station must continuously monitor both discharge and receiving water temperatures and must visually inspect all discharge areas at least three times each day to assess the impact on aquatic life. It must also notify the Illinois EPA and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources if aquatic life is shown to be affected. If the increased discharge temperature results in adverse environmental impact, appropriate reparations must be conducted.
Exelon Generation’s Braidwood Station must continue to meet all other effluent conditions in its NPDES permitalong with additional conditions contained in the provisional variance but not expressly listed above.
The Illinois EPA has determined that any environmental impact from the variance would be closely monitored, and the Agency will be notified immediately of any adverse impacts; no reasonable alternative appears to be available; no public water supplies will be affected; no federal regulations would prohibit granting the request; and the facility would face an arbitrary and unreasonable hardship if the IEPA did not grant the requested variance.
The provisional variance will be in effect no later than March 31, 2012. All other NPDES permit requirements will remain in effect.
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