MARINE MAMMAL COMMISSION - Annual Report for 1998 



replace aging equipment to extend the facility's life 

 and make it more efficient) these plants. Also, even 

 the long-term availability of natural warm-water 

 springs is uncertain. That is, water flow rates at some 

 natural springs have declined significantly over the 

 past 20 years as regional water tables have been 

 lowered by the removal of groundwater for domestic 

 and agricultural use. 



The possible deregulation of Florida's electric 

 utilities first came to the Commission's attention at its 

 1996 annual meeting. At that time, the Fish and 

 Wildlife Service, the Sirenia Project, the Florida 

 Department of Environmental Protection, and the 

 Georgia Department of Natural Resources advised that 

 they were planning a cooperative study to track the 

 movements of manatees using a small industrial outfall 

 in northern Florida. The plant, a pulp mill near the 

 Florida-Georgia border, was to begin discharging its 

 effluent though a diffuser pipe late in 1997, thereby 

 eliminating a warm-water area that has been the 

 region's principal winter manatee refuge. The study 

 was intended to help assess the effect on manatees of 

 eliminating a warm-water refuge. 



As the study proceeded, the Commission wrote to 

 the Service on 23 December 1997 requesting informa- 

 tion on other steps being taken to prepare for possible 

 deregulation of Florida's electric utilities. In part, the 

 Commission asked what was being done to identify 

 alternative strategies to minimize impacts on manatees 

 from power plant shutdowns and to ensure that 

 relevant state and federal planning processes consider 

 the possible effects on manatees. The Service's 22 

 January 1998 reply noted that it was helping fund the 

 above-mentioned study in northeastern Florida and 

 that it planned to convene a forum in 1998 to bring 

 together agency and industry officials, as well as other 

 organizations and individuals, to address critical 

 questions, such as those raised by the Commission. 



In light of the reply, the Commission wrote to the 

 Service on 5 June 1998 endorsing the plan for the 

 forum. Because of the importance of factoring 

 possible effects on manatees into any action regarding 

 deregulation, it was particularly pleased to learn of the 

 Service's intent to hold the forum before the end of 

 the year. The Commission also provided comments 

 and recommendations on both the issue and plans for 



organizing the forum. It noted that, given the limited 

 number, size, and distribution of natural warm-water 

 springs, it did not believe that the current manatee 

 population could be supported by natural warm-water 

 reftiges and remaining undisturbed areas in southern- 

 most Florida alone. If major artificial warm-water 

 refuges were eliminated or became unreliable, it 

 suggested that a significant number of manatees likely 

 would die from exposure to cold. 



To address such a possibility, the Commission 

 suggested two possible approaches: (1) establishing 

 an industry-supported contingency fund to ensure 

 continued operation of selected plants important to 

 manatees even if more cost-effective alternatives for 

 providing electricity exist, or to help develop and 

 operate backup systems to maintain warm-water 

 discharges when generating units are shut down (e.g., 

 discharging solar-heated water), and (2) investigating 

 the possibility of designing and constructing a network 

 of new warm-water refuges for manatees that would 

 not be dependent on industrial discharges (e.g., 

 creating embayments designed for manatees to retain 

 warm water recirculated through solar heating systems 

 or from other non-industry-dependent sources). 



To organize the proposed forum, the Commission 

 recommended that the Service ask the Florida Depart- 

 ment of Environmental Protection and the U.S. 

 Environmental Protection Agency to join the Service 

 as co-conveners, because of their key responsibilities 

 for managing manatees and/or issuing permits for 

 thermal discharges. The Commission also recom- 

 mended that the Service hold a preparatory meeting 

 with other agencies and groups to help develop 

 objectives, an agenda, and relevant background 

 papers. Such background papers should summarize 

 information on past and current abundance and 

 distribution of manatees in Florida, the use of natural 

 and artificial refuges by manatees, thermal tolerances 

 of manatees, possible effects of deregulation on 

 existing manatee refuges and manatees, legal authori- 

 ties and cooperative agreements with power companies 

 bearing on the protection of manatees, and alternative 

 actions for mitigating potential adverse impacts of 

 deregulation. 



As an interim step, the Service convened a meeting 

 limited to federal and state agency officials on 27-28 



98 



