By AP
CHICAGO –
Public documents show hundreds of millions of Great Lakes fish are being killed annually when older power plants suck in water to cool equipment.
The Chicago Tribune obtained government documents detailing fish killed when pulled into plants. For example, each year the Bay Shore power plant near Toledo, Ohio, on Lake Erie kills 46 million adult fish and more than 2.4 billion eggs, larvae and young fish.
The process is banned at new power plants, but not older power plants. In March the federal government proposed new rules for older plants. They'll be finalized in July 2012.
C. Richard Bozek directs environmental policy for the energy company trade group Edison Electric Institute. He says it's not clear there "is a broad-based problem out there that needs to be fixed."