A recent court ruling could change the way San Diego County's three coastal power plants cool their electricity generating turbines. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals says the Environmental Protection Agency should NOT allow power plants to kill millions of fish by drawing cooling water from oceans, bays, and rivers.
San Diego Coastkeeper Bruce Resnick says the ruling could force the operators of San Onofre, South Bay and Encina to move to closed cycle or air cooled systems.
Bruce Resnick: They need to use the best available technology and we believe that means dry cooling and not using our coasts and our bays and our rivers to cool these power plants which has such a devastating impact.
The court says the EPA has a responsibility to protect underwater ecosystems. Local power plants suck in billions of gallons of water for cooling each day. That water carries along trillions of organisms that are killed during the process.
