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NONWATER QUALITY IMPACTS OF CLOSED-CYCLE COOLING SYSTEMS AND THE INTERACTION OF STACK GAS AND COOLING TOWER PLUMES
Citation:
Englesson, G. AND M. Hu. NONWATER QUALITY IMPACTS OF CLOSED-CYCLE COOLING SYSTEMS AND THE INTERACTION OF STACK GAS AND COOLING TOWER PLUMES. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/7-79/090.
Description:
The report gives results of a literature survey of the nonwater quality impacts of closed-cycle cooling systems. Following discussions of cooling tower and stack gas plumes, interactions of these plumes are considered. For cooling tower plumes, plume types, behavior, salt drift generation and deposition, and inadvertent weather modifications are reviewed. Meteorological conditions enhancing deposition, icing and fogging, and cloud formation are emphasized. The discussion of cooling-tower/stack-gas plume interactions focuses on interactions, acid precipitation, case studies of operating power plants, and control practices to reduce or minimize these interactions. Adverse biological impacts of acid precipitation, cooling tower drift, and icing and fogging on biota are treated. Effects of acid precipitation on soil, soil biota, vegetation, and aquatic biota (including planktonic and benthic organisms and fish) are considered relative to levels causing harm or injury. This examination includes: atmospheric and cooling tower salt loading, cumulative effects of both, and salt tolerances of animals and plants. Emphasis is on threshold concentrations at which biota is affected by drift deposition and the distance from the cooling tower where toxic levels result.