10. PSEG’s Estuary Enhancement Program: An Innovative Solution to an Industry Problem

The Salem Generating Station is a nuclear power plant along the Delaware Bay in New Jersey that uses once through cooling. At the 1990 NJ NPDES permit renewal (required for operating), New Jersey DEP decided to require PSEG, the facility owner, to build cooling towers to address egg and larval fish loss in the cooling system that had been permitted a decade earlier. Rather than building cooling towers, PSEG proposed mitigation, part of which included salt marsh restoration to increase fish nursery habitat in Delaware Bay. In the years since the plant was first proposed in 1966, environmental education and awareness had expanded such that PSEG realized more public involvement would be needed than in the past. Hence the company implemented an outreach and education program that informed stakeholders.