Jobs, fish-kills concerns at Oyster Creek hearing - pressofAtlanticCity.com : Ocean County - 0 views
-
Energy Net on 01 Mar 10"Residents, environmentalists and company officials on Wednesday debated a proposal requiring the Oyster Creek Generating Station to build cooling towers. The state Department of Environmental Protection wants the plant to build cooling towers as part of a water-discharge permit. The plant's owner, Exelon Corp., said closing the plant would be preferable financially to installing a cooling system the company estimated would cost more than $700 million. At the hearing, most local residents and elected officials sided with the company and urged the DEP to let the plant continue using its current cooling system, which circulates 662 million gallons of water per day from canals off the Forked River. Lacey Township Mayor Gary Quinn defended the private jobs and public revenue the plant provides, including more than $11 million in Energy Receipts Taxes the township receives each year. Exelon Corp. lawyer William J. Donohue said 700 plant employees would lose their jobs if the state prevailed in adding cooling towers to the plant's water-discharge permit."