Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) said this week that it had taken aggressive actions to improve the water quality in a 168-mile cooling canal system used by the Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant and that some stabilization had been achieved.
The company was court-ordered to clean up the canals after a Miami-Dade County reported called attention to elevated tritium levels in Biscayne Bay, which were more than 200 times higher than ambient levels of normal ocean water.
The company said that steps it had taken had stabilized the salinity level of the cooling canal system. The company also determined that it would not use the L-31 canal water this year, which it noted would be a key decision applauded by environmental groups.
The company was also moving forward on other steps to address salinity levels in the the canal system and in underground water. The Miami-Dade County report concluded that a huge plume of salt water was threatening the well field that supplied fresh water to the Florida Keys.
FPL is the country's third largest electricity utility. The company also said progress was being made in addressing ammonia levels in four deep, artificial channels adjacent to the cooling canals and that readings of those levels had dropped below levels of concern. A new pumping system has been constructed to help control this problem, FPL said.
The company also said it was monitoring the population of several local wildlife species, including the American crocodile and the Argentine black and white tegu lizard that poses a threat to the crocodiles and other native wildlife.
“Most notably,” FPL said, it had taken steps to address the salinity problem and that “the company has determined that it will no longer need to access water form the South Florida Water Management District's L-31 canal in the foreseeable future.”
FPL vice president of Environmental Services Randy LaBauve said the company was holding to previous estimates that it would take “several years to fully resolve the canal system's complex challenges.”
“That continues to be true,” he said. “But the improvements we're seeing are important steps forward.”
Excess storm water from the South Florida Water Management District's L-31 canal was being used temporarily to help freshen the cooling canals, and in February, FPL had applied to continue to draw additional water from the L-31.
Continued monitoring has shown that the ammonia problem was isolated to four deep, artificial canals and that it had not migrated to other parts of the system. Ammonia is produced naturally by decaying plants and animals, but concentrations can rise in waters that do not flow freely. The artificial canals, FPL said, are 20 to 25 feet deep, which is three to five times deeper than Biscayne Bay. “FPL's scientists believe that this difference in depth results in stagnation in these isolated areas,” the company's statement said.
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