&EPA
             United States                       Office of Water                EPA 821-F-02-003
             Environmental Protection                                         March 2002
             Agency

             Fact  Sheet
             Cooling Water Intake Structures At Large Existing
             Power Plants- Proposed Rule

Summary
   On February 28, 2002, the EPA Administrator approved a proposed regulation that will
   establish location, design, construction and capacity standards for existing power plants that
   use the largest amounts of cooling water.
   The proposed regulation is designed to protect fish, shellfish and other aquatic life from
   being killed or injured by cooling water intake structures.
•  The rule is flexible. Strong, technology-based performance standards would apply unless a
   facility shows that these standards would result in very high costs or little environmental
   benefit at their site.
•  Facilities could choose to demonstrate to permitting authorities that protecting wetlands or
   restoring degraded habitat would result in comparable environmental performance within a
   waterbody as meeting the technology requirements.
•  With EPA approval, States could set alternative requirements for facilities that achieve
   comparable environmental performance within a watershed.
•  EPA estimates that this rule would affect approximately 550 facilities and cost $182 million
   per year. EPA estimates that the benefits of today's rule would be as much as $700 million.
•  The rule would not cause any electric generating facilities to close and would not adversely
   effect energy supply, distribution or use.

Background
•  Section 316(b) of the Clean Water Act requires EPA to ensure that the location, design,
   construction and capacity of cooling water intake structures reflect the best technology
   available for minimizing adverse environmental impacts.
•  EPA is developing these regulations under the terms of an Amended Consent Decree in
   Riverkeeper, Inc. v.  Whitman, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 93-
   Civ.0314(AGS).

Additional Information
You can call Tom Wall at (202) 566-1060 or Deborah Nagle at (202) 566-1063, or you  can write
to either of them at:
             Office of Science and Technology
             Engineering and Analysis Division, Cooling Water Intake Task Force (4303)
             U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
             1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
             Washington, D.C. 20460

You can also send an e-mail to Wall.Tom@epa.gov or Nagle.Deborah@epa.gov . For further
details about this Phase II proposal or any other phase of this rulemaking, refer to
www.epa.gov/waterscience/316b on the Internet.

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