Letter: New power plant would pollute
PSEG Long Island has found that the proposed Caithness II power plant in Yaphank "will not be needed." This is the Caithness I plant in Yaphank on Jan. 20, 2010. Credit: Newsday / John Paraskevas
Building Caithness II would not be a reasonable or fiscally sound alternative for curbing the harmful effects our older power plants have on fish populations .
According to the Final Environmental Impact Statement for Caithness II, it would require a new transmission pipeline carrying gas produced by hydrofracking. This could destroy and disrupt acres of wildlife habitat, including but not limited to the Pine Barrens, freshwater rivers and our air.
Additionally, although Caithness II wouldn't draw water from the Sound, together with its sister plant, it would annually use more than 70 million gallons of water from our aquifer. Long Island's aquifers are stressed from development and storm water run-off; why exacerbate this by building Caithness II?
Using the Empire Generating Power Plant in Rensselaer as a model, Long Island's power plants could instead be retrofitted to use reclaimed water from nearby sewage treatment plants and from storm water runoff. Doing this would eliminate the need to use coastal water, thereby saving fish and protecting both our waterways and our aquifer.
Andrea M. Barracca, Middle Island
Editor's note: The writer is a co-founder of Project Seeeds, an environmental advocacy group.
