At Ravenswood, our electricity generating plant across the East River from Manhattan, we are installing state-of-the-art equipment to minimize our impact on marine life.

Plants like Ravenswood affect fish in three main ways. First, cooling water is heated as it passes through the plant, raising the temperature of the water returned to the river and causing thermal stress. Second, larger fish may be trapped against the intake screens by the water being drawn into the plant. Finally, smaller organisms may pass through the intake screens and experience mechanical or chemical stresses on their way through the plant systems.

The Clean Water Act and New York regulations require that generating plants use the best technology available to reduce these impacts. The studies that measure the plant's effect on aquatic life and the plan to install technology improvements were initiated by the companies that preceded us as plant owners. Since acquiring Ravenswood in 2008, TransCanada has continued to implement these mitigation plans.

New York State and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency initially requested that cooling towers replace the existing cooling water intake systems; however, this is not possible at Ravenswood due to the limited space available for construction. As an alternative, we modified the intake screens and now plan our outages to coincide with spawning season.

TransCanada is currently in the midst of a $10 million capital project to install variable speed drives on each of the cooling water pumps. The drives will allow us to reduce the flow rate of the water when we are operating the station at lower loads. This change is a key component of our plan to reduce impact to aquatic species in the river.

"TransCanada consistently demonstrates its commitment to safety, environment and long-term sustainability," says Kevin Fennessey, Environmental Specialist at Ravenswood. "This project will be no different; we'll find the best solution that allows us to operate at the maximum potential while minimizing our impact, even if it costs a little more to do it."

Completed installation of the new drives is estimated by 2011. We are confident they will have a very positive impact on local marine life.