1 Site Description Report Fisk Generating Station 111 West Cermak Road Chicago, IL 60608 August 4 , 2009 1.0 Background and Objectives The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is in the process of developing 316(b) cooling water intake structure requirements that reflect the best technology available (BTA) for minimizing adverse environmental impact for all existing power plants and manufacturing facilities. As part of this process, EPA staff is visiting electric generators and manufacturers to better underst and the cooling water intake structure (CWI S) technologies in use at facilities, including the site

specific characteristics of each facility and how these affect the selection and performance of CWI S technologies. EPA is also visiting facilities to bette r understand cooling water use and specific issues or technologies that can affect 316(b) compliance. As part of its site visit to the Crawford Generating Station , EPA also collected information on Midwest Generation ’s Fisk Generating Station ( Fisk )
. 2.0 Fac ility Description Fisk is located on a 40 acre site on the South branch of the Chicago River (just above the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal ) in downtown Chicago. The facility began operations in 19 03 1 and operates under NPDES permit IL0002178 ; the permi t expired April 30 , 200 5 and has been administratively extended
. 3.0 Electricity Generation and Transmission Fisk is a coal

- fired gene rating station with one generating unit and a total generating capacity

of 348 MW. The unit came online in 1959. The facil ity operates as a baseload generating station, 2 providing both electricit y and voltage support to the Chicago area. The facility has one scheduled outage per y ear for maintenance; outages vary from 10

- 50 day s, depending on the extent of activities require d. 4.0 Cooling Water System and Intake Structure Fisk withdraws once

- through cooling water from a shoreline CWI S located near the end of a 1000 foot long intake canal. The facility ’s two single speed circulating pumps have a combined design intake flow (DIF ) is 323 million gallons per day

(mgd) , including service water
.
1 Fisk operated the first all steam

- driven station in the US. 2 Fisk’s gross capacity factor for 2009 w as 59. 6%.2 Water passes through a trash rack and into one of 4 screen bay s, each with an 8 foot wide coarse mesh (3/8”) traveling screen. Screens are rotated on a timer and debris and fish are deposit ed in a perforated basket for dewatering and eventually disposed of in a landfill
. 3 The design through

- screen velocity is 1.69 feet per second (fps). The facility ’s NPDES permit does not contain any 316(b) requirements. The facility ’s discharge point is approximately 1000 feet upstream of the intake canal. 5.0 Impingement and Entrainment Information Fisk conducted impingement and entrainment sampling in 2004

- 2005 in preparation for compl yi ng with the now - suspended 2004 Phase II rule. Weekly impingement samples (not impingement mortality) were collected for a 24

- hour period. A total of 1622 organisms were collected, consisting of 26 species; eight species comprised 94% of the biomass collected. The projected total annual impingement was 32,987 organisms p er ye ar. See Attachment B. 6.0 Cooling Tower Feasibility In 2008, Midwest conducted a feasibility study for converting several of its plants to closed

- cy cle cooling. The study (conducted b y Sargent & Lund y) concluded that there is sufficient space to instal l wet cooling towers at Fisk, but that the cost would be approximately

$1 20 million. 4 (See Attachment A .) Facility representatives stated that financing and other considerations would likely render installation of cooling towers at this site impractical. 7.0 Debris Handling Fisk screens a very

large volume of trash from the river; approximately 60 tons of trash is removed each ye ar. Facility representatives noted that Fisk is not permitted to return its screen wash water to the canal. L oading from other t ypes of debris does not appear to be a major operational concern. 8.0 Repowering/Future Uses EPA did not collect any

information about repowering at this site.

3 Per state law , the facility is prevented from returning anything back to the waterbody. 4 The study assumed that mechanical draft towers with plume abatement and drift eliminators w ould be installed and that existing structures on the site would need to be relocated. The study did not consider permitting or other technical feasibility concerns (e.g., conflicts with existing piping); it was a capital cost estimate.3

9.0 Cooling Ponds There are no cooling ponds onsite. 10.0 Ownership Fisk is owned b y Midwest Generatio n, an investor

- owned compan y and subsidiary

of Edison International. 11.0 316(a) The facility ’s NPDES permit does not contain any 316(a) limits. The Ship Canal is a man

- made waterway , designed to convey POTW effluent and is manipulated to provide flood contr ol for the City of Chicago, as well as accommodate heavy commercial barge traffic
. As such, it has less stringent water quality standards for most pollutants, including temperature. Although Fisk discharges to the South Branch of the Chicago River (just upstream of the official beginning of the Chicago Sanitary

and Ship Canal), it is subject to the same less stringent thermal limits. The station has been consistentl y able to meet the existing thermal limits such that no 316(a) variance has been required. 12.0 Ash Handling Fly ash i s sent to an offsite landfill due to the use of activated carbon injection (ACI) for mercury

control. The ACI sy stem has been in service since July 1, 2008; prior to the start

- up of this unit, fly ash was sold for beneficial reuse
. . 13.0 Air Emissions Controls Fisk uses electrostatic precipitators for particulate control, overfired air for NOx reduction, and activated carbon to remove mercury .
Attachment A Engineering Diagram for Cooling Tower Locations at Fisk Attachment B Executive Summary of Final Draft Impingement Mortality and Entrainment Characterization Study , Fisk Station December 20074

Attachment A

—Engineering Diagram for Cooling Tower Locations at Fisk Please see the attached materials. Attachment B

—Executive Summary of Final Draft Impingement Mortality and Entrainment Characterization Study, Crawford Station December 2007 Please see the attached materials.