Plant Complications

From December 17, 1993 (update #19)

SOMERSET, N.Y.-A recent shutdown at a NYSEG power plant could be instructive to other facilities with "no mussel problems," according to Ray Tuttle, an NYSEG environmental specialist.

The problem started with a large Cladophora dieoff near the NYSEG Kintigh power plant. (Cladophora is a green alga that forms the "scum" often found covering nearshore rocks.) Mats of algae gathered on plant intake screens, causing the screens to stop rotating. This resulted in a water draw down in the plant intake well, apparently allowing piles of mussels killed by control efforts to get sucked into auxiliary condensers thus causing the power plant to shut down for a day.

Tuttle said that in hindsight NYSEG employees should have removed dead mussel shells from the bottom of the intake well. He said the Cladophora "bloom" probably occurred due to increased light penetration, which was caused by the presence of zebra mussels.

ID: 19931217-6.

The Zebra Mussel Update was a 4- to 8-page quarterly national newsletter published by the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute from May 1990 through May 1997. The ZMU documented the spread of the zebra mussel -- an exotic nuisance mussel -- through North America's freshwater environments, especially the Great Lakes, and on efforts to control it.