NOTICES
DELAWARE RIVER
BASIN COMMISSION
DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
Public Comment Period and Joint Public Hearing Concerning Proposed Delaware River Basin Commission Draft Docket and Department of Environmental Protection Draft NPDES Permit for Exelon Generation Company, LLC, Limerick Generating Station Summary
[42 Pa.B. 4479]
[Saturday, July 14, 2012]The Delaware River Basin Commission (Commission) and the Department of Environmental Protection (Department) are accepting comments on the proposed approvals related to applications filed with each agency by Exelon Generation Company, LLC (Exelon Generation) for its Limerick Generating Station (LGS) located in Montgomery County. The Commission will accept written comments on its draft doc. D-1969-210 CP-13 through 5 p.m. on October 27, 2012. The Department will accept written comments regarding its proposed National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit No. PA0051926 for the LGS facility until 5 p.m. on October 27, 2012. The agencies will hold a joint public hearing on August 28, 2012, (details as follows) on the proposed agency actions.
LGS is located on a 491-acre site adjoining the east bank of the Schuylkill River, almost entirely within Limerick Township, Montgomery County, but with a small area extending into Lower Pottsgrove Township, Montgomery County. The site is about 1.7 miles south of the Borough of Pottstown. The LGS property includes 154 acres adjoining the west bank of the Schuylkill River in East Coventry Township, Chester County; however, no plant features of LGS are situated in this area. LGS is a nuclear power plant with two generating units, each having a maximum Reactor Thermal Power of 3,515 megawatts, with circulating cooling water for the steam turbine condensers furnished from cooling towers and surface waters. Noncontact cooling water and boiler blowdown are discharged to the Schuylkill River adjacent to the LGS facility.
The Commission's draft docket sets forth the terms and conditions of the Commission's proposed approval for both water withdrawals and discharges associated with the LGS facility. It would authorize surface water withdrawals from the Schuylkill River or Perkiomen Creek, or both, including an increase in the peak daily withdrawal from the Schuylkill River from 56.2 million gallons (mg) to 58.2 mg (44 mg consumptive plus 14.2 mg noncon-sumptive) and restricts the maximum monthly withdrawal to 1.7422 billion gallons. The draft docket also approves Exelon Generation's use of water from Tamaqua Area Water Authority, Wadesville Mine Pool and the Delaware Diversion (by means of Forest Park Water Authority and Exelon Generation's Bradshaw Reservoir) to augment the proposed withdrawals. The draft docket would approve the discharge of noncontact cooling water and boiler blowdown to the Schuylkill River.
The proposed NPDES permit would renew the Department's approval for the continued discharge by LGS of cooling tower blowdown, treated process wastewater and stormwater to the Schuylkill River and Possum Hollow Run through various outfalls.
Dates
The public hearing will take place on Tuesday, August 28, 2012, from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. and will be preceded by an information session, running from 4:30 p.m. until 5:30 p.m. Written comments will be accepted until 5 p.m. on October 27, 2012.
Addresses
The hearing and information session will take place in the Sunny Brook Ballroom, 50 Sunny Brook Road, Pottstown, PA 19464.
Written comments must be addressed separately to each agency. Written comments to the Commission may be submitted at the hearing and may also be sent to Paula.Schmitt@drbc.state.nj.us or in hard copy to the attention of the Commission Secretary, DRBC, either by fax to (609) 883-9522 or to P. O. Box 7360, West Trenton, NJ 08628-0360; or delivery service to 25 State Police Drive, West Trenton, NJ 08628-0360 until 5 p.m., October 27, 2012. Regardless of the method of submission, comments should include the name, affiliation (if any) and address of the commenter and the subject line, ''Public Comment—Exelon LGS Docket.''
Written comments to the Department may be submitted at the hearing and may also be sent to jfields@pa.gov or in hard copy to the attention of Jenifer Fields, either by fax to (484) 250-5971 or to Department of Environmental Protection, Southeast Regional Office, Water Management, 2 East Main Street, Norristown, PA 19401.
For Further Information Contact
Questions that are not addressed in the ''Supplementary Information'' section of this notice regarding the Commission draft docket may be directed to Paula Schmitt at (609) 477-7224 or Katharine O'Hara at (609) 477-7205.
Regarding the draft NPDES permit, contact Sohan Garg at (484) 250-5197 or Pravin Patel at (484) 250-5194.
Supplementary Information
Draft Approvals and Related Documents. The complete text of the Commission draft Doc. No. D-1969-210 CP-13 can be viewed on the Commission's web site at www.drbc.net or by appointment at the Commission's West Trenton office (see previously listed address).
The NPDES permit renewal application, draft permit No. PA0051926 and related documents can be reviewed by appointment with the Department, Record Management Section at (484) 250-5910. These documents are also available at Limerick Township (Montgomery County), 646 West Ridge Pike, Limerick, PA 19468 or East Coventry Township (Chester County), 855 Ellis Woods Road, Pottstown, PA 19465.
Hearing Procedure. To give everyone who wishes to testify an opportunity to do so, the following procedures will be in effect:
• Registration to testify. Individuals who wish to speak at the hearing will be asked to complete separate, pre-numbered Commission/Department commenter cards as appropriate and will be summoned to the microphone in the order that their card number is called. Registrations to present oral testimony will begin at approximately 4:30 p.m. on the day of the hearing and will continue until the hearing is closed. There will be no advance registration.
• Time allowances. To allow everyone who wishes to speak an opportunity to do so, individuals will be allotted no more than 3 minutes each. Speakers will not be permitted to cede their time to others; however, after everyone who desires to speak has had a chance to do so, the hearing officer may accept requests from those who wish to supplement their earlier remarks. The hearing will conclude no later than 9 p.m. Individuals who have prepared lengthy written testimony are asked to summarize their comments during the 3-minute period and to submit their complete written comments either at the public hearing or in accordance with the ''Addresses'' previous section, before 5 p.m. on October 27, 2012.
• Stenographic record. A court stenographer will be present during the public hearing to capture verbal comments for the public record.
• Other. The sole purpose of the hearing on August 28, 2012, is to provide members of the public with an opportunity for oral testimony on the proposed Exelon Generation Company, LLC, Limerick Generating Station and Surface Water Augmentation approvals. The Department and the Commission will not respond to comments or conduct any other business during this hearing. The Commission will not accept oral testimony on its draft Exelon LGS docket at any other time, including at the Commission's regularly scheduled public meetings in September and December.
Project Description. A detailed description of the project is included in each of the two draft approvals.
Briefly, the proposed Commission docket would:
1. Provide long-term authorization for water withdrawal and discharge operations based upon experience gained from the LGS Water Supply Modification Demonstration Project and the Wadesville Mine Pool Withdrawal and Streamflow Augmentation Demonstration Project.
2. Consolidate within a single docket all conditions relating to the surface water withdrawals required to meet consumptive and nonconsumptive needs at LGS, and the facility's surface water discharge to the Schuylkill River of up to 14.2 million gallons per day of blowdown. Until this time, Commission water withdrawal and discharge conditions had been included in multiple dockets.
3. Approve an increase in the maximum daily withdrawal from the Schuylkill River by LGS from 56.2 mg to 58.2 mg (44 mg consumptive plus 14.2 mg non-consumptive) and establish a maximum monthly withdrawal of 1.7422 billion gallons. The project water withdrawals are located in the Schuylkill and Delaware River watersheds. The water withdrawals primarily will be made from the Schuylkill River but also will be drawn from the Wadesville Mine Pool and the Borough of Tamaqua Water Authority's Still Creek Reservoir (by means of releases to the Schuylkill from these impoundments) and the Perkiomen Creek. Water withdrawn from the Perkiomen Creek is augmented by a withdrawal from the Delaware River conveyed by means of the Point Pleasant Pumping Station and Bradshaw Reservoir.
4. Eliminate the current restriction on withdrawals from the Schuylkill River when ambient water temperatures reach 59° F; reduce from 4 days to 3 the travel time required for water from some augmentation sources to reach LGS intakes; modify river and stream monitoring requirements; and continue the Restoration and Monitoring Fund.
The proposed NPDES permit would renew approval for the continued discharge by LGS of cooling tower blowdown, treated process wastewater and stormwater to the Schuylkill River and Possum Hollow Run through various outfalls.
Additional public records of the Commission relating to the draft docket are available for review consistent with Article 8 of the Commission's Rules of Practice and Procedure (RPP) governing public access to records and information. The Commission's RPP are also available on the Commission's web site, www.drbc.net.
Individuals in need of an accommodation as provided for in the Americans with Disabilities Act who wish to attend the hearing should contact the Commission Secretary directly at (609) 883-9500, Ext. 203 or through the Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS) at 711, to discuss how the Commission and Department can accommodate their needs.
PAMELA M. BUSH,
Commission Secretary
Delaware River Basin CommissionMICHAEL L. KRANCER,
Secretary
Department of Environmental Protection
[Pa.B. Doc. No. 12-1305. Filed for public inspection July 13, 2012, 9:00 a.m.]
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