Brunner Island Impingement Study
PPL Brunner Island, LLC
York County, PA
Kleinschmidt was contracted by Pennsylvania Power and Light
to design and implement an impingement
mortality study at their Brunner
Island Station on the Susquehanna River This study is part of PPL’s preparation
for responding to requirements of the Clean Water Act 316(b) rule.
The goal of the impingement mortality program is twofold; to determine the extent of mortality associated with impingement and to estimate the annual number of total fish impinged per unit and use these data to project the maximum impingement rates per year based on station operating and design capacity.
The sampling schedule requires weekly impingement collections from April 2005 through November 2005 and bi-weekly collections from December 2005 to March 2006 for a total of 40 samples. Within all samples, fish are being enumerated, identified to species, weighed, measured and categorized according to condition (live, injured, diseased or dead). If large impingement events occur the appropriate sub-sampling procedures are followed. In addition to length and weight of fish, the age structure will be characterized for species of recreational importance or abundance in impingement samples. To study latent mortality four studies include sampling at three or more intervals throughout a 24-hour period to estimate survival, to determine the diel changes in impingement rates, and to assess the value of more frequent screen rotations.
The final impingement report will include seasonal species composition, species abundance, size frequency of impinged organisms, survival estimates and projected annual impingement rates.
For more information contact Chris Tomichek.