Addressing Electric Utility Surface Water Challenges

Abstract

Growing regulatory pressures and increasing public concerns regarding a broad range of utility surface water management issues have the potential to substantially impact electric utility operations and costs. In order to pro-actively contribute and respond to the increasing number and scope of regulatory proposals, the electric utility industry must develop a focused and integrated plan for addressing key information and analytical needs. Over the past year, EPRI has conducted an extensive review of current and planned surface water-related research with the goal of targeting future research activity towards the highest priority industry needs. As a result, new or expanded research efforts in the areas of toxics sampling and analysis, field measurements of aqueous process and discharge streams, cost-effective metals control technologies, bioaccumulation and bioavailability of toxics, and watershed-wide risk assessment and management, are planned. The new initiatives will build on and complement current surface water research programs, as well as leverage recent efforts addressing utility stack emissions of trace substances (or air toxics). A risk management framework will be used to integrate the diverse research inputs and apply them to address key policy and utility management issues. This framework, and the tools and data developed through current and subsequent research efforts, will provide the comprehensive, multi-media data and analysis tools needed to respond to current and future utility environmental management challenges efficiently and cost effectively.