Enviro Groups Can Challenge Fla. Utility's Nuclear License

Enviro Groups Can Challenge Fla. Utility's Nuclear License
By Carolina Bolado
Law360 (March 8, 2019, 7:41 PM EST) -- A U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission panel ruled Thursday that environmental groups challenging Florida Power & Light Co.'s bid to renew its license for two nuclear reactors can have a hearing on the environmental impact of leaks in the Turkey Point power plant's cooling canal system.

A panel of the NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board said the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy could have a hearing on its challenge to FPL's application for a license renewal, as could Friends of the Earth Inc., the Natural Resources Defense Council Inc. and Miami Waterkeeper Inc., which had jointly filed a request for another hearing on environmental concerns about the nuclear power plant just south of Miami.

The groups, all of which submitted declarations from members who live within 50 miles of the plant, have standing, according to the board, and made reasonable arguments regarding FPL's failure to consider mechanical draft cooling towers as an alternative to the cooling canals, as well as the utility's failure to recognize the Turkey Point units as a source of ammonia in surrounding wetlands.

The panel also agreed to consider how the operation of the power plant's cooling system affects the American crocodile, a threatened species that lives in the nearby Everglades. The plant's cooling system involves circulating water through a network of canals. A mechanical draft cooling tower cools air by circulating it with a fan.

The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy argued that FPL should replace the outdated cooling canals with mechanical draft cooling towers, which are in use at other facilities and in one section of Turkey Point, to protect the area's drinking water and the two nearby national parks: Biscayne National Park and Everglades National Park.

"We challenged FPL's proposal to run Turkey Point for decades longer than anticipated because the plant is not being properly managed," the alliance's regional advocacy director Sara Barczak said in a statement. "This open industrial sewer is polluting Biscayne Bay and putting South Florida's critical drinking water supplies at risk today — this cannot continue into the 2050s."

The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy is also embroiled in litigation in federal court in Miami over water pollution from the Turkey Point plant. The group alleges ongoing violations of a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit and Clean Water Act requirements stemming from the nuclear power plant's cooling canal system.

The alliance has argued in the suit that the Biscayne Aquifer, which provides fresh water to more than 3 million people, and the surface water of Biscayne National Park are under severe threat.

An FPL representative could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.