Northport Power Station Plans to Protect Local Marine Life

New upgrades expected for the Northport Power Station will provide protection to the surrounding marine ecosystem of Long Island, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation announced Monday.

The Power Station’s new State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit will require enhanced controls to protect the aquatic life.

“National Grid will modernize the Northport Power Station in order to significantly reduce impacts to aquatic life while producing the power needed to keep Suffolk County running,” DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos said in a statement. “DEC worked hard to strike the right balance for the people, businesses and marine ecosystems of Long Island.”

The current permit allows the Northport Power Station to withdraw more than 900 million gallons of cooling water from the Long Island Sound each day. This causes fish and other aquatic life to be harmed or killed when they are drawn into the cooling system or caught on water intake screens, the DEC says.

This new permit would provide protective systems and management protocols to help reduce harm towards these aquatic species by 85 percent.

The Northport Power Station, located on the North Shore of Long Island in Northport, has four active natural gas/oil fired steam-electric generating units that have an electric generation capacity of 1,452 megawatts.

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