13.0 SUMMARY 



New Haven Harbor Ecological Studies were undertaken from 1970 

 through 1977 as part of requirements for siting, design, construction 

 and operation of the New Haven Harbor Station. Because this effort was 

 coincident with several pieces of major environmental legislation and 

 was responsive to several different state and federal agencies, there is 

 no single regulation or permit which fully describes the basis for the 

 study. Studies were conducted to evaluate potential environmental 

 impacts, to aid development of recommendations for mitigative design 

 measures and to monitor environmental effects of construction and oper- 

 ation of the facility. 



During planning and construction phases, the U.S. Army Corps 

 of Engineers (ACE) was the lead federal agency and in 1972 prepared an 

 Environmental Impact Statement. Construction permits were granted and 

 in October 1973 an NPDES permit was issued by the Connecticut DEP 

 authorizing operation of the facility through June 1977 and specifying 

 monitoring and reporting requirements. The subsequent NPDES permit, 

 effective June 30, 1977 included a requirement for ... 



"a summary report concerning all biological monitoring 

 studies. Such a report shall address the relationship 

 of monitoring data collected after station start-up to 

 baseline data collected prior to station operation." 



The New Haven Harbor Ecological Studies Summary Report, pre- 

 pared in response to this requirement, presents the results of 1970-1977 

 studies with emphasis on the preoperational monitoring studies for 1973 

 (when the discharge permit was issued) through August 1975 (when the 

 plant began commercial operations) , and on operational phase studies 

 from September 1975 through October 1977. In addition to the required 

 objective of identifying and evaluating possible impacts of the gener- 

 ating station on the harbor ecosystem, this report was organized to 



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