Aquatic impact

Because of the high reproduction rates of the plankton and good tidal mixing at existing plants, depletion of plankton populations has not occurred. Spawning occurs throughout the Bay for the species of fish present here, so local depletions are insufficient to decrease Bay populations. Impingement totals are small compared to mortality due to other sources. In addition, efforts to reduce these totals are now underway at all three existing plants, Calvert Cliffs, Morgantown, and Chalk Point. Habitat modification effects, usually more subtle in nature, have minor, localized impacts. Coupled together, the power plant monitoring studies show a low cumulative impact on the mesohaline environment. The major area of concern within this region is the impact of cooling water withdrawals upon the nursery and spawning areas of striped bass and other anadromous species. Possum Point and Vienna have the highest potential for impact. New facilities planned for this region (Douglas Point, Summit, and Vienna) would increase withdrawals. The overall impact upon striped bass due to entrainment drops from an estimated 6.6% entrainment (upper bound) of the eggs and larvae spawned in the Maryland portion of the Bay at present to an estimated 3.4% (upper bound) after 1987. The addition of Douglas Point and Summit is more than off-set by the retirements of the once-through cooling units at Vienna. No impingement data are available at any of the present plants; however, degraded water quality at the Baltimore and Washington plants appears to have severely restricted fish populations in these waters. The proposed plants are expected to have no major impacts in the areas of impingement or habitat modification due to the small amount of water withdrawn