The Sierra Club released a comprehensive
report in August detailing the impacts of outdated cooling systems used by power plants. According to the the report, and as demonstrated in
this popular animation by Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Mark Fiore, once-through cooling processes kill billions of fish and other aquatic organisms each year in the Gulf of Mexico, Mississippi River, Hudson River, New York Harbor and Long Island Sound, California Coast, Great Lakes, and Chesapeake Bay.
The EPA has proposed new standards for power plant cooling water systems, under the Clean Water Act. Unfortunately, these fall far short of protecting fisheries and waterways and the Sierra Club is pushing for the EPA to enact stronger standards that curtail giant fish blenders.
Our report received coverage by mdeia outlets nationwide, including in
Minnesota,
Wisconsin, New Jersey (
here and
here), and
Ohio. The story even appeared in the Italian
Green Report!