Controls Discussed at EPRI Meeting

From June 14, 1991 (update #8)

CHICAGO -- Five Great Lakes power utilities reported on the status on zebra mussel impacts at power plants during a meeting of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) Zebra Mussel Advisory Group here on May 2. Dave Michaud of the Wisconsin Electric Power Company (WEPCO) provided these notes on the meeting:

* Commonwealth Edison and Niagara Mohawk have both effectively used heat treatments to control mussels in their power plants. These and other utilities have also used a variety of chemical control applications to control mussels.

* Ontario Hydro is now using mechanical cleaning as the most cost-effective method to prevent condenser plugging. Chlorination (0.5 ppm continuous application, and an additional 2.0 ppm for 30 minutes twice daily) is Ontario Hydro's preferred treatment for plant service water systems, which require treatment of a much smaller volume of water than plant cooling water systems.

Research on less conventional control solutions was also discussed at the meeting. Projects currently under way include:

* Natural microbes that could infect and kill mussels (funded by the Empire State Electric Energy Research Consortium);

* The use of chlorine/copper solutions, ultraviolet light and ozone, and a pilot scale study evaluating "nonstick" coatings (funded by Ontario Hydro), and

* Research by Niagara Mohawk on pretreating mussels with potassium salts to reduce required concentrations of oxidants for killing mussels.

Two noteworthy events reported from the regulatory arena were:

* Niagara Mohawk conducted a bioassay of zebra mussels removed from a power plant and found no toxicity, suggesting that there would not be a problem disposing of these mussels in a standard solid waste landfill.

* The Indiana DNR denied Northern Indiana Public Service Company's request to use Acti-Brom and Clam-Trol -- two commercial molluscides -- at the utility's Lake Michigan power plants.

ID: 19910614-6.

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.