Saltwater marshes are beautiful and resilient. They host a wide range of plants and animals, and their productivity is only matched by coral reefs. However saltwater marshes also have nothing to do with the location, design, construction and capacity of the cooling water intake structure of power plants. There are many questions about the marsh mitigation plan and how it may benefit the local environment. Delgado said 24,000 acres of restored wetlands would only produce approximately 1 percent of the number of weakfish killed by the plant.
Theoretical models are hypothetical, speculative and lack verification.
Productivity of newly created and restored saltwater marshes is highly variable and is subjected to many factors. A slight miscalculation in design parameters will result in greater changes in productivity. In turn, this will also increase the number of fish that will become impinged, entrained and killed by the power plant. Thus, there are more fish in the water, there are more fish going to be destroyed by the nuclear power plant. While productivity is not as high as a saltwater wetland, a freshwater wetland will provide an important habitat to many species like painted turtles, tadpoles, black rails, cattails, black ducks and mosquitofish.