United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Environmental Research
Laboratory
Duluth MN 55804
Research and Development
EPA-600/S3-84-014 Mar. 1984
&EPA Project Summary
Documentation of the Data Base
Wisconsin Power Plant
Impact Study
Saya Shacham, Gordon Chesters, and Hilary McLellan
This report describes the data col-
lected by investigators at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison from 1971 to 1978
during a study of the Columbia
Generating Station near Portage,
Wisconsin. It gives a history of the pro-
ject and describes the site and the
operation of the power plant. Informa-
tion is presented on methods, access
procedure, data samples, quality
assurance, supporting documents, and
qualifications of the investigators for the
data set or sets associated with each
subproject. Related data sets collected
by the Wisconsin Power and Light Com-
pany or their contractors are also
included.
This Project Summary was developed
by EPA's Environmental Research
Laboratory, Duluth, MN, to announce
key findings of the research project that
is fully documented in a separate report
of the same title (see Project Report
ordering information at back).
Introduction
In 1969, three Wisconsin electric power
companies applied to the Wisconsin Public
Service Commission for permission to con-
struct a large coal-burning power plant near
Portage in south-central Wisconsin. At the
time, little was known about the en-
vironmental impacts of large projects such
as this. In recognition of the need for this
kind of information, researchers at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison suggested
a study to measure the impact of the pro-
posed power plant. In 1971 they began
preconstruction studies of the site. These
studies, supported by the three utility com-
panies, continued during the construction
and early operational phases of the plant
from January 1971 until July 1975.
In 1975, the U.S. Environmental Protec-
tion Agency recognized the unique research
opportunity that existed at this site, as well
as the potential nationwide application of the
findings. The agency awarded the project a
three-year grant to continue and expand the
research funded by the power companies.
This project, known as "The Impact of Coal-
Fired Power Plants on the Environment," has
involved more than 100 investigators in 24
areas of research.
One of the goals of the large study was
to integrate the various subprojects so that
questions that might be neglected in
separately funded projects could be exam-
ined. The Columbia study was conceived
and developed as a unit. This approach
demonstrated the need for a center to coor-
dinate central collection, transfer, storage,
and documentation of all data. In June 1976,
the Data Center for the Columbia Site Im-
pact Study was established to:
1. Eliminate unnecessary duplication of
data gathering.
2. Facilitate the transfer of data and other
information from one subproject to
another.
3. Organize the data so that maximum use
could be made of it by investigators in-
ternal and external to the project.
The Columbia Generating
Station
The Columbia Generating Station is a two-
unit, 1054-MW facility burning low sulfur
subbituminous western coal. It is located in
the eastern floodplain of the Wisconsin
River, approximately 6.4 km south of Port-
age, Wisconsin (Figure 1). It is owned and
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Figure 1. Location of the Columbia Generating Station.
operated by a consortium of three utilities:
Wisconsin Power and Light Company,
Wisconsin Public Service Corporation, and
Madison Gas and Electric Company.
The power plant was built in a 1900-ha
wetland (Figure 2). Of this total area, 445.5
ha have been permanently altered by con-
struction of a 202.5-ha diked cooling lake,
a 28.4-ha ash basin, a coal storage area, coal
train tracks, coal handling facilities, a boiler
and turbine-generator building, a parking lot,
and access roads.
The higher areas are well drained, but
most of the site is <239 m above sea level
and these low areas are usually wet
throughout the year because of groundwater
discharge. The groundwater discharge area
includes the wetlands of the site, the
wetlands to the east, which are used for mint
farming, and extensive wetlands along the
lower reaches of Rocky Run Creek. The low
areas also receive groundwater recharge
from upland areas located on and adjacent
to the site.
The site supports a range of plant and
animal communities including marsh/sedge
meadow, wet forest, and dry forest. The
region around the site is rich agricultural land
producing a variety of crops. Six of these are
considered especially vulnerable to impacts
from the power plant: alfalfa, oats, soy-
beans, barley, rye, and wheat.
The power plant is in an area of relatively
low population. The combined population of
the 13 towns within a 16-km radius of the
station was 18,995 in 1970, and was
estimated at 21,105 in 1980. The entire ser-
vice area for the three utilities that built the
plant encompasses about 40% of the land
area of Wisconsin.
Construction began at the Columbia site
in 1971 and was completed in 1978. Table
1 shows the major events during develop-
ment of the site.
Several aspects of plant operation are
especially relevant to the environmental im-
pacts addressed by the various subprojects.
These include disposal of fly ash and the ef-
fects of the power plant on the water regime
at the site.
High energy electrostatic precipitators col-
lect more than 99% of the fly ash residue.
Residue from Unit II is collected dry, but that
from Unit I, along with bottom ash, is slur-
ried with water from the cooling lake and
discharged to the ashpit. Water entering the
ash basin flows through a series of lagoons
where ash particles settle. The water is
pumped to the ashpit drain and eventually
joins Rocky Run Creek (Figure 2).
The chemistry of the ashpit is complex.
The metal oxides, which constitute the major
reactive portions of the ash, result in a pH
of 10 to 11 in the water. The pH must be
lowered to 8 or less before the ash effluent
is discharged, but the addition of acid causes
elements such as Ba, Al, and Cr to
precipitate in a floe that coats the bottom of
the ashpit drain and is carried with the cur-
rent into Rocky Run Creek and the Wiscon-
sin River.
Water from the Wisconsin River is
pumped into the cooling lake at a rate which
averages 0.30% of the river's flow, or 50,000
m3/day. Of this, 20% is discharged to the
ashpit, 40% is lost by groundwater seepage,
and 40% is lost by evaporation. Hot water
is discharged at the north end of the lake at
temperatures averaging 10° to 15°C higher
than at the intake. Although cooling towers
dissipate some of the waste heat from Unit
II, the cooling lake still receives 80% of the
annual heat load. The discharge of waste
heat increases the overall temperature of the
lake by about 8°C when the cooling towers
are not operating.
The cooling lake has a 2.47-m hydrostatic
head above the surrounding wetlands.
Seepage through the bottom of the lake has
changed the character of the wetlands in the
study area adjacent to the west dike.
The Data Center
The data center was organized to provide
a range of services. It standardized, adjusted,
and organized the data into forms suited to
modern procedures for storage and retrieval.
It prepared information about the data and
quality assurance. By this means, the center
facilitated interdisciplinary evaluation of the
data, enhancing its usefulness to other in-
vestigators and helping to minimize duplica-
Table 1. Chronology of Events in Construction of Columbia Generating Station
Date
Event
April 1971
October 1972
March 1973
September 1973
January 1974
April 1974
June 1974
July 1974
October 1974
December 1974
January 1975
May 1975
August 1975
December 1975
November 1976
October 1977
April 1978
Construction of west dike begun
Main building frame topped off
Unit I stack begun
Ashpit, drainage ditch begun
Intake channel started
Coo/ing lake completed
Filling of coo/ing lake started
Transmission line right-of-way started
First coal received
Unit I stack completed
Cooling lake sealed and refilled, boiler testing started
Unit I on line
Unit II building started
Unit II stack construction started
Cooling tower construction begun
Unit II stack completed
Cooling tower completed. Unit II on line
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km
r/2
farm
dram
Figure 2. Columbia Generating Station site and study area.
tion in data collection. It also provided in-
vestigators with assistance in computer ser-
vices and statistical analyses. The center
could disseminate data from its large base
of information, manipulating and processing
the data as user requirements dictated.
During the first 18 months after it was
established, the data center developed stan-
dardized procedures for putting information
into computer-compatible form. It listed all
data available with information about the
form of the data, the parameters measured,
and the dates and location of acquisition. It
made the data and documentation of the
data accessible to users and provided
statistical analysis and summary output to
the various subprojects in the study.
In 1978 the data center began to compile
a data book for the entire study. The pur-
poses of the data book were to make data
available to secondary scientific users for
reanalysis, synthesis, or theoretical studies
and to provide a means for transferring
ecosystem and environmental data to policy
makers and nonscientific users. Four
categories of potential users were considered
in compiling the data book: investigators
who would conduct longitudinal studies at
the site, investigators who depend on
analysis and synthesis of large amounts of
data on many parameters for the develop-
ment of models, investigators looking for
tools for impact assessment, and the non-
scientific user community. The rapidly in-
creasing costs of data collection put an even
greater value on existing data for use in
policy analysis, environmental assessment,
and the calibration of models. Such secon-
dary uses enhance the value of the data con-
solidated in the data base of the Columbia
power plant impact study.
Two major forms of data, computer-
readable and visual, were identified for pur-
poses of storage and retrieval. Computerized
data are stored on tape in the tape utility
system of the Univac 1110 computer at the
Madison Academic Computing Center
(MACC), University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Users with access to MACC can retrieve data
directly. Other users may request data in the
form of cards, printouts, or tapes. Visual
data including maps, graphs, slides, and pic-
tures are stored in the data center of the Col-
umbia impact study. Reproductions of all
available data can be obtained from the data
center with permission of the principal in-
vestigator involved. There is a charge to
defray certain expenses.
The basic need of a secondary user of data
is adequate documentation. To meet this
need, the full report summarized here
documents each data set in six sections: a
data abstract, an explanation of data access,
a data sample, a quality assurance analysis,
supporting documents, and qualifications of
the investigators. Data abstracts include the
names of the investigators, a data summary,
a short description of the experimental
method, and dates. Data access tells how
to access the data and, for computerized
data, gives the number of records, a field
description, indication of missing data, per-
cent recovery, and underlying corrections.
For long data sets, a representative sample
is given. The entire data set is reproduced
for small data sets.
The quality assurance report provides the
necessary information for an assessment of
the validity and reliability of the mea-
surements in that set. Although the topics
x/ary according to the specific requirements
of each data set, most quality assurance
reports give the objectives of the data set,
describe the system studied and the
methods, equipment, and procedures used
in the study, and evaluate the performance
of the equipment. The supporting docu-
ments either describe the data or present the
results of the studies. These documents in-
clude internal documents such as the semi-
annual progress reports of the Columbia
study.
The data sets fall into four categories:
numeric data base, noncomputerized data,
integrated hardware/software system, and
model. Most of the data are in the form of
numerical data bases. The integrated hard-
ware/software systems contain programs
that were developed in the Columbia project.
A model is considered to be a mathematical
function that has been developed for and ap-
plied to an ecosystem problem to arrive at
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condensed results that can be used for
prediction and simulation. Models emerging
from the Columbia study are documented
and published elsewhere.
The Data
The data sets are grouped according to
the 14 subprojects of the overall study plus
data from the Wisconsin Power and Light
Company and other outside sources.
1. Aquatic chemistry. Five data sets are
related to the aquatic chemistry subproject.
They contain data on a variety of water qual-
ity parameters and on experiments to deter-
mine the concentrations of elements in fly
ash and the rates at which they are leached
out.
2. Trace elements. Four data sets docu-
ment the concentrations of trace elements
in Columbia County soil, in oak leaves near
the power plant, and in a variety of aquatic
animals, including amphibians, collected
near the generating station.
3. Organic contaminants. Two data sets
give measurements of polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons in soils and snow surrounding
the generating station.
4. Air pollution modeling. This data set
contains measurements of dry deposition of
sulfur in the plume of the generating station.
5. Meteorology. Six data sets give infor-
mation on wind speed and direction, air
temperature gradients at one monitoring sta-
tion, and the monitoring of solar radiation,
rainfall, and inversion layers.
6. Hydrogeology. Seven data sets docu-
ment groundwater levels and temperatures
at sampling points in the vicinity of the power
plant. They also include results of a five-year
survey of 12 water quality parameters and
background information on the wells that
were installed to monitor the effects of the
power plant on groundwater.
7. Plant damage. Eleven data sets address
questions of the effects of air pollution on
alfalfa grown in the vicinity of the power
plant, the effects of the power plant on
lichen communities, tipburn injury to needles
of Eastern white pine, and levels of ozone,
nitrogen oxides, and oxidants in the ambient
air near the generating station.
8. Aquatic invertebrates. Eight data sets
measure changes in communities of aquatic
invertebrates, effects of temperature on the
life histories of Ephemeroptera, distribution
of aquatic invertebrates colonizing artificial
substrates upstream and downstream from
the ash effluent, effects of short-term ex-
posures of Gammarus to the ash effluent,
effects of food contaminated by ash effluent
on Asellus racovitzai, oxygen consumption
of crayfish exposed to ashpit effluent, metal
concentrations in tissues of crayfish caged
in field locations near the power plant, and
supporting water quality data for all of these
studies.
9. Fish. Four data sets record information
on the ecology and distribution of fish at
sampling stations near the power plant, with
special studies of northern pike. Data on
water temperature are included.
10. Cooling lake ecosystem assessment.
Seven data sets document currents and
temperatures in the cooling lake, populations
of selected species of fish and invertebrates,
light extinction, and chlorophyll.
11. Wetland birds. Nine data sets record
the abundance and distribution of wetland
birds and relate these results to char-
acteristics of the vegetative cover and water
regime at the site of the power plant.
12. Wetland plants. Three data sets iden-
tify changes in the wetlands west of the cool-
ing lake, relate various vegetation parameters
to the water regime, and document the con-
dition of the wetlands photographically.
13. Remote sensing. Five data sets include
a survey of vegetation counts and cover.
aerial photographs of the wetland west of
the cooling lake, scanned data from selected
color and color infrared aerial photographs
taken at the study site and at four similar
central Wisconsin wetlands, and documen-
tation of image processing software for
digitizing scanned air photos.
14. Citizen concerns and attitudes. Two
data sets record results of a workshop and
a survey on attitudes of citizens on land use
and power plant siting.
15. Wisconsin Power and Light Company
data. Thirteen data sets monitor levels of
several air pollutants, air temperature, wind
speed and direction, atmospheric pressure,
precipitation, net solar radiation, and daily
coal consumption and gross megawatt load
of the power plant.
16. Data from other sources. Two data
sets provide evaporation data from the Ar-
lington Experimental Farm of the University
of Wisconsin-Madison and meteorological
data obtained by the National Weather Ser-
vice at Truax Field, Madison, Wisconsin.
Say a Shacham, Gordon Chesters, and Hilary McLellan are with the University of
Wisconsin, Madison, Wl 53706.
Gary E. Glass is the EPA Project Officer (see below).
The complete report, entitled "Documentation of the Data Base: Wisconsin Power
Plant Impact Study," (Order No. PB 84-140 268; Cost: $29.50, subject to
change) will be available only from:
National Technical Information Service
5285 Port Royal Road
Springfield, VA 22161
Telephone: 703-487-4650
The EPA Project Officer can be contacted at:
Environmental Research Laboratory
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
6201 Congdon Blvd.
Duluth, MN 55804
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United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Center for Environmental Research
Information
Cincinnati OH 45268
Official Business
Penalty for Private Use $300
ir U.S GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1984-759-102/884
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