[Newshouse News Service, 12 November] Non-native
mussels in Lake Ontario have cost Entergy between $1.5 million and $2
million per day in lost revenue by eating the wrong seaweed. Entergy's
James A FitzPatrick nuclear power plant in New York state has been shut
down three times in the past two months due to seaweed in cooling water
taken from Lake Ontario clogging filters.
Non-native zebra and quagga mussels that colonized Lake Ontario have been blamed for a surge in the amount of
cladophora, a "filamentous algae" that grows in fine hairlike strands,
in
the lake. These mussels do not eat cladophora, but they do eat other
types of floating algae, making the water clearer. This in turn has
lead to the cladophora thriving as sunlight has been able to penetrate
to greater depths. The mussels also excrete phosphorus and nitrogen,
which fertilize the cladophora. The seaweed becomes a problem in late
summer and early autumn when it dies back and winds can make the water
choppy, raising the weed from the bottom of the lake. The FitzPatrick
plant is making changes to its water intake and filtering system to
prevent future problems with the weed. Universities also plan to study
the problem next year. Other nuclear power plants on the shores of Lake
Ontario, such as Nine Mile Point and Pickering, have not been affected
by the problem as their water intake systems have been upgraded.
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