Oligohaline Benthic Invertebrate Communities at Two Chesapeake Bay Power Plants

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Abstract
Benthic invertebrate populations at the Surry power plant on James River, Virginia and the C. P. Crane power plant on Saltpeter Creek, Maryland exhibited large spatial and temporal variations. At C. P. Crane, where the cooling water is pumped between two tidal creeks, populations in the receiving creek exhibited five response patterns: 1) mitigation of a winter dieoff (Rangia cuneata, a brackish water clam), 2) acceleration of growth or development (R. cuneata; Scolecolepides viridis, a polychaete;Leptocheirus plumulosus, an amphipod; Tubificidae; andCoelotanypus sp., a dipteran), 3) importantion of larvae from the source water creek (S. viridis andCoelotanypus sp.), 4) extension of creek-dwelling species into the adjacent river (Coelotanypus sp. and other dipterans), and 5) increased severity of late summer population depressions (S. viridis andL. plumulosus). At Surry, where the cooling was no confined creek system at the discharge, and effects were less pronounced. The community in the Surry discharge zone resembled the community at downriver stations more closely than at upriver reference stations. TheL. plumulosus population near the Surry discharge was depressed, while theMytilopsis leucophaeta population was enhanced. No major ecological damage was attributed to either power plant, due in part to the resilience of estuarine endemic populations, but the unique features exhibited by each of the two sites support the argument that oligohaline estuarine zones should not be designateda priori for unregulated industrial development.

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