Intervention Analysis of Power Plant Impact on Fish Populations

Abstract

Alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) and yellow perch (Perca flavescens) abundances, estimated from monthly gillnet and trawl catches at two transects, were monitored before (1973–74) and during (1975–82) operation of the D. C. Cook Nuclear Power Plant, southeastern Lake Michigan. Intervention analysis, a technique which accounts for autocorrelated observations, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were applied to the monitoring data to assess any plant impact beginning in 1975. Both analyses disclosed no significant power plant impacts except for gillnetted yellow perch adults. The ANOVA indicated a significant decrease in abundance at the plant-discharge transect relative to the reference transect as plant operation began, which established a plant effect; intervention analysis showed no change. When April and May catches (months of low abundance) were deleted, this plant effect was insignificant. Monte Carlo simulation showed that as the first-order autoregressive coefficient increased positively, type I error of the ANOVA F-test increased. However, ANOVA was more powerful than intervention analysis when a first-order autoregressive component was included. Impact assessment based only on ANOVA can result in detection of impact when actually there was no effect (type I error) when observations are serially correlated (lack independence).

Thermal impact of a nuclear power plant in a coastal area in Southeastern Brazil: effects of heating and physical structure on benthic cover and fish communities

“…Luksiene & Sandström (1994) found that Rutilus rutilus fail to recruit in areas that are exposed to thermal discharge from a nuclear power station in Sweden. Madenjian et al (1986) found a decreased abundance of Alosa pseudoharengus and Perca flavescens at a nuclear power plant on Lake Michigan when compared to a reference condition. Negative effects of thermal influence on the growth and the spawning period of Micropterus dolomieu were found for the Doré Bay in Lake Huron (Shuter et al 1985).…”

“…Some of these studies refer to the biological features of single species that have been measured or observed in the field, such as early development and distribution (Shuter et al, 1985;Madenjian et al, 1986), reproduction (Luksiene & Sandström, 1994), and life history (Dembski et al, 2006). Others are restricted to laboratory experiments on thermal tolerance (Bennett & Judd, 1992;Mora & Ospína, 2001;Ospina & Mora, 2004).…”

Thermal Impact Modeling

“…An additional study (Madenjian et al, 1986) looked at the effects of the D.C. Cook nuclear plant on yellow perch. Fish at power plants can be affected not just by thermal discharges, but by being sucked into the cooling water intakes.…”

“…The research obtained during the literature search showed that the elevated temperatures in the river produced by the thermal discharge are not elevated enough to cause any stress or possible mortality for any of the species native to the river (Clapp et al, 1997;Holmes et al, 1994;Hosanson, 1977;Madenjian et al, 1986).…”

Biomass and number of fish impinged at a nuclear power plant by the Baltic Sea

“…The removal of fish by power plants with once-through cooling systems has rarely exerted a demonstrable impact on surrounding fish stock sizes (Madenjian et al 1986;Barnthouse et al 2002;Newbold and Iovanna 2007;Greenwood 2008). An exception may be the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in California, U. S. A., which was found to remove about 40% of the clinid kelpfish larvae during entrainment, thereby affecting the adult population (Ehrler et al 2002).…”