Several monitoring studies have used exposure panels to assess environ- 

 mental impacts of thermal effluents (Frame 1968; Cory and Nauman 1969; 

 Nauman and Cory 1969; Hillman 197 5, 197 7; Young and Frame 197 6; NAI 

 1979; Maciolek-Blake et al. 1981; Osman et al. 1981). The types of 

 impacts attributed to thermal effluents from such studies include increases 

 in biomass (Cory and Nauman 1969; Nauman and Cory 1969) and woodborer 

 activity (Naylor 1965; Turner 1973; Maciolek-Blake, et al. 1981), extension 

 of breeding seasons (Naylor 1965; Young and Frame 1976) , and attraction 

 of non-native species (Naylor 1965; Hoagland and Turner 1980; NUSCo 

 1982) . 



The exposure panel program at the Millstone Nuclear Power Station 

 (MNPS), Waterford, Connecticut has sampled fouling and wood-boring 

 communities, since 1968. The objective has been to characterize fouling 

 and wood-boring communities at sites within and beyond the thermal 

 effluent. Species composition and abundance have been used to assess 

 temporal and spatial differences between sites and years. This evaluation 

 is intended to present a historical overview of the program, summarize 

 prior evaluations upon which program changes were based, and evaluate 

 our approach to future work relative to the startup of Unit 3. 



HISTORICAL REVIEW OF METHODOLOGY 

 Overview of Program 



During 1968-1981, one change in the general approach to collecting 

 data and several minor changes in methods were made to improve the data 

 base. From 1968-1978, one long and one short term exposure panel were 

 collected monthly from each of six stations. Long term panels were 

 exposed for 12 months and short term panels were exposed for one month. 



