News from People’s Action for Clean Energy

by Judi Friedman, PACE

A Pure House in Westport: www.ThePureHouse.com

PACE is excited about this concept : a high performance building envelope that has eliminated carcinogens!

Doug McDonald, owner and builder of a PASSIV house in Westport, has taken the next step! He has built a design/build team which will construct houses that are safe to live in and absolutely energy-efficient! Using pure and natural products he will have a house ready for market in three weeks in Westport, Conn.

More Research to be Done at Millstone Nuclear Power Plant

Each day, some two billion gallons of water are pumped from Long Island Sound into the Millstone Power Station in Waterford, CT – our state’s only nuclear power plant – and used to help cool systems and support the station’s two operating reactors. After it heats up, about 90 percent of that water is discharged back into the Sound at about 20 degrees warmer than when it was taken in, said Ken Holt, a spokesman for Millstone.

Suffolk County Legislator Jay Schneiderman (I-Montauk) wants to better understand what, if any, impact that heated water is having on the ecology of the Sound and has reached out to researchers at Stony Brook University’s School of Atmospheric Science, hoping they can determine whether Millstone might be “overheating” the Sound’s waters.

“No one has really studied the broader impacts of this plant,” Mr. Schneiderman said in a recent interview, noting that biology experts have recorded an “undeniable” increase in Long Island Sound water temperatures over the last few decades, which has affected the health of local fisheries, including lobster and flounder populations.

Soon the Waterford plant, which is just under 10 miles north of Plum Island, will need to renew a permit mandated by the federal Clean Water Act. Known as a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, it helps the government regulate pollution – in this case thermal pollution – discharging into ground and surface waters.