Dozens of sea lions, seals and even threatened turtles sucked into power plants along Southern California's coast are dying every year--and critics accuse the federal agency in charge of protecting these creatures of doing little more than recording the growing death toll.
Regional regulators have known for decades about marine creatures being drawn into power plants, yet little has been done to enforce federal laws that limit the death or even disturbance of sea animals, records and interviews show.
For the Record
Los Angeles Times Tuesday January 11, 2000 Home Edition Metro Part B Page 3 Metro Desk 2 inches; 46 words Type of Material: Correction
Power plants--A headline in Sunday's Times incorrectly used the phrase "Whirlpools of Death," referring to power plants that suck in marine life as they draw in water for the facility. Actually, the plants do not create whirlpools. Seawater is drawn into large inlets to be used for cooling and then is recycled back into the sea.
But officials from the National Marine Fisheries Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, say that the effects on burgeoning seal and sea lion populations are negligible and that their time and limited resources are better spent fighting larger threats to more sensitive species.
"Nowadays, everybody wants to protect every single animal whether it needs protection or not," said Joe Cordaro, a biologist at the service's southwestern regional office in Long Beach. "Common sensibility out there is lacking. Enough animals still need protection. We need to direct resources and money to them."
Environmentalists challenge the agency's philosophy, saying that its job isn't to interpret federal laws.
"They ought to just enforce the law rather than playing God," said Mark Massara, a Sierra Club attorney.
Although the problem is seen across the nation, it is particularly acute in Southern California, where several power plants depend on ocean water to cool the super-hot steam that powers energy-generating turbines. That requires intake pipes that extend far into the ocean. In the process of drawing in water, the pipes suck fish, crustaceans, marine mammals, turtles and other sea creatures into the cooling system.
Grates over the intakes are not practical because they would be constantly clogged with seaweed, barnacles and other marine life.
The largest facility, the San Onofre nuclear plant, has the highest death toll of all the state's power plants--187 harbor seals and California sea lions have been found dead there since 1983, according to the Fisheries Service. Both species are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972.
The plant, just south of San Clemente, draws in 1.6 million gallons of seawater per minute for cooling and recycles it back to the ocean. About 3,200 feet offshore, water is pulled into the cooling system through openings in a large concrete inlet structure.
