Some Effects of a Power Plant Effluent on Estuarine Epibenthic Organisms

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Abstract
A study using the submerged test panel method was conducted at the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station near Barnegat Bay, New Jersey to investigate effects of the heated effluent on epibenthic communities. Test panels were placed in the intake and discharge canals and collected using SCUBA at 28, 84, 168 and 335‐day intervals between October 1970 and October 1971. Exposed panels were replaced by clean panels upon collection.Faunal resemblance, both between stations during a sampling date and within stations from one sampling date to the next, was low. Numbers of species were higher at the discharge station than at the intake station from late fall to early summer and lower from midsummer to early fall. Overall differences in diversity at the two stations could not be detected. The optimum temperature for growth of Balanus sp. was approached more closely during winter in the discharge canal than in the intake canal where growth was retarded by cold water. Balanus eburneus appeared to have an extended breeding season. Because of dilution of the discharged water with cooler intake water through a plant bypass system during the summer, the effluent was not seriously harmful to amphipod reproduction. Season abundances of numerous invertebrates at both stations are reported and possible power plant effects are discussed.