There is no direct polychaete connection (unless someone cares to find one),
but this story seems to be a good news one for coastal USA invertebrates,
including polychaetes. I'm not sure how those with biofouling abilities will
be dealt to under this kinder, nurturing regime!
As the result of a settlement in a 1995 lawsuit with environmentalists, the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to protect fish,
shellfish and other aquatic life from being destroyed by cooling water intake
structures at manufacturing facilities and new offshore oil and gas facilities
nationwide.
More at:
http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/316b/basic.htm
"Section 316(b) of the Clean Water Act requires us to ensure that the
location, design, construction, and capacity of cooling water intake
structures reflect the best technology available to minimize adverse
environmental impact. Such impacts include death or injury to aquatic
organisms by impingement (being pinned against screens or other parts of a
cooling water intake structure) or entrainment (being drawn into cooling water
systems and subjected to thermal, physical or chemical stresses)."
http://riverkeeper.org/campaign.php/fishkills/we_are_doing/99
"Power plants use enormous quantities of water, nearly a hundred trillion
gallons per year from the nation's rivers, lakes, oceans and estuaries, to
condense steam use in generating electricity. A single large power plant can
withdraw several billion of gallons of cooling water per day, more than a
million gallons per minute, killing the overwhelming majority of organisms in
this massive volume by entraining them into the facility or impinging them on
intake screens. This staggering mortality - trillions of fish, shellfish,
plankton and other species at all life stages - has stressed and depleted
aquatic, coastal and marine ecosystems for decades, and has contributed to the
collapse of some fisheries. On New York's Hudson River, for example, a cluster
of power plants were found to reduce nearly 80% of certain fish species in
certain years. Throughout the country, the toll on fisheries by power plants
rivals, and in some cases exceeds, that of the fishing industry."
--
Geoff Read <g.read at niwa.co.nz>
http://www.annelida.net/
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