{"id":8958,"date":"2014-05-15T12:52:16","date_gmt":"2014-05-15T16:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=8958"},"modified":"2014-05-15T13:01:47","modified_gmt":"2014-05-15T17:01:47","slug":"georgia-power-wants-more-new-water-for-vogtle-nukes-than-savannah-uses-ga-epd-2014-05-08","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/georgia-power-wants-more-new-water-for-vogtle-nukes-than-savannah-uses-ga-epd-2014-05-08.html","title":{"rendered":"Georgia Power wants more new water for Vogtle nukes than Savannah uses @ GA EPD 2014-05-08"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\n<\/a>\r\nToday is the last day to\r\n\r\ncomment to GA EPD<\/a> about Georgia Power’s demand for\r\nmore new water for the Plant Vogtle nukes than Savannah uses.\r\nAs Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning said two years ago,\r\n“water, more than air, is the issue of the future”.\r\nComments may be emailed to EPDComments@dnr.state.ga.us with the subject line “Plant Vogtle.”\r\nSee below for videos of what people said at a recent public hearing.\r\n

\r\nMary Landers wrote for SavannahNow.com 7 May 2014,\r\n\r\nNukes thirst for Savannah River water<\/a>,\r\n

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\r\nThat sucking sound you hear? That’s Georgia Power and its partners\r\npreparing to pull 74 million gallons of water a day out of the\r\nSavannah River to cool the nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle near\r\nWaynesboro. That’s in addition to the 127 million gallons per day\r\nthe existing reactors are permitted to draw.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n“For downstream users like Savannah there’s going to be a bigger\r\nstraw in their river and it’s Vogtle,” said Sara Barczak of the\r\nSouthern Alliance for Clean Energy.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThe new nuclear reactors, for which you’re already paying if you\r\nlive in Savannah and use electricity, aren’t expected to be in\r\noperation until 2017 or later. (It keeps getting later.) The state\r\nissued a draft water withdrawal permit in January that allows for\r\nthe maximum daily pull of 74 million gallons per day or a monthly\r\naverage of 62 million gallons per day.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nFor comparison, the city of Savannah takes out a maximum\r\nof 55 million gallons a day from the river for drinking\r\nwater. (EPD provides a link to a list of all withdrawals here<\/a>.)\r\nAnd if you think Vogtle will return most of the water to the river after\r\nusing it for cooling, think again: the consumptive use is estimated at\r\n71 percent on average. Worst case scenario is that the cooling process\r\nwill send 88 percent of the water into the atmosphere through evaporation.\r\n<\/P>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nThere’s more in\r\n\r\nthat article<\/a>, including this:\r\n

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\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nTo the Coastal Sierra Club’s Steve Willis, what’s more worrisome is\r\nthat billions of dollars of work has gone forward on the reactors\r\nwithout the companies first securing a water withdrawal or discharge\r\npermit.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nRemember, \r\n\r\nPlant Vogtle already uses more water than all the local agriculture<\/a>.\r\n

\r\n\r\nTwo years ago at the Southern Company stockholder meeting,\r\n\r\nSO CEO Tom Fanning said<\/a>,\r\n

\r\n<\/a>\r\nI think frankly water, more than air, is the issue of the future.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nSouthern Company is Georgia Power’s parent company, so let’s also ask\r\nTom Fanning to stop this water taking.\r\nThere’s no excuse for it when\r\n\r\nwe can power the state and the country on sun, wind, and water<\/a>\r\nand Georgia Power and Southern Company with it’s biggest private R&D operation in the U.S. can be the key to that.\r\n

\r\nHere’s\r\n\r\na video playlist<\/a>\r\nof speakers at the GA EPD hearing of May 8th:\r\n<\/p>\r\n

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