New EPA Water Intake Rule Too Weak, Fails to Protect Aquatic Life

WASHINGTON (May 19, 2014) -- The Environmental Protection Agency today, following decades of litigation, issued a final rule that falls far short of what’s needed to protect fish and other aquatic life from being killed by the cooling system water intakes at electric power plants and large factories, the Natural Resources Defense Council said. NRDC and other conservation groups objected to rules when they were first proposed more than three years ago. Steve Fleischli, director of NRDC’s Water Program, made the following statement about the final rule:

“We are deeply disappointed. This rule is not only overdue, it is weak. EPA has essentially abdicated its responsibilities under the Clean Water Act and passed the buck to the states, most of which have shown they don’t have the capacity or the will to safeguard our waterways from these sources. This rule will do little to protect America’s fisheries from the enormous impact of power plants.”