ENB Region 2 Completed Applications 12/20/2006

Applicant proposes to operate a temporary dewatering system to facilitate the construction and upgrade of the Avenue V Pump Station with a maximum withdrawal of 8,640,000 gallons per day.  Construction will take place at the job site located 76 Avenue V in Brooklyn, NY.  The pumped groundwater discharge is to be treated with appropriately sized settling tanks and oil/water separators and directed to the Coney Island Creek via Outfall OH-021.

Filed application documents, and Department draft permits where applicable, are available for inspection under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Law during normal business hours at the address of the contact person.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (Department) proposes to renew and modify the State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (SPDES) Permit of the Ravenswood Generating Station (Ravenswood).  Ravenswood is located in Long Island City, Queens County, on the East River.  The facility consists of three units with rated capacities of 400, 400 and 1027 megawatts.  The facility has a combined flow of condenser cooling water and service water of 1457 million gallons per day.  

The draft modified permit requires that the permittee, Keyspan Generation, LLC (Keyspan),  reduce entrainment and impingement impacts to aquatic organisms of the East River from the operation of Ravenswood water withdrawal pursuant to 6 NYCRR Part 704.5 and Section 316(b) of the Clean Water Act.  Reductions are to be accomplished through:

- Continued use of the low stress fish return lines constructed at each unit in 2005;

- Installation of variable speed pumps and ancillary equipment;

- Scheduling of a planned outage process that will require pumps to be shutdown;

- Upgrades to existing traveling screens to allow for the continuous operation of all traveling intake screens.

The above referenced measures will reduce entrainment mortality by 65% from the full flow baseline.   Impingement mortality will be reduced by 79% by the above measures. The use of the continuous screen operation is expected to further reduce impingement mortality to an approximate 85% reduction from the full flow baseline.  Keyspan must also propose additional measures to further reduce impingement mortality, achieving a 90% reduction from full flow baseline.  These levels of impact reduction meet the federal 316(b) Phase II performance standards.

In addition to the above modifications the draft SPDES permit also requires Keyspan to conduct a thermal study to demonstrate Part 316(a) compliance with 6 NYCRR Part 704.2.  The permit provides timelines for completion of a protocol and the thermal study. The draft permit also contains administrative changes and modified effluent limitations. In all cases, the effluent limitations are more stringent than the existing limits.  

A copy of the draft permit and the fact sheets are available for review.  

Filed application documents, and Department draft permits where applicable, are available for inspection under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Law during normal business hours at the address of the contact person.