• The Panda Perkiomen generating station will utilize 6.5 to 8 million gallons of water per day. To meet these limits, Panda is proposing to construct an 18-mile pipeline to carry treated effluent from Kline’s Island, a wastewater treatment plant located on the Lehigh River, Allentown, Pa. Water piped to the Panda Perkiomen plant will be used in the boilers and cooling towers. Approximately 80% of the water will evaporate during the cooling process.

• The Panda Perkiomen generating station will return 1.6 million gallons per day of polluted water consisting of a five-fold concentration of dissolved solids, chlorides, and other elements to Kline’s Island for treatment and ultimate discharge into the Lehigh River.

• On Sept. 9, 1999, William Heydt, mayor of Allentown, signed a Letter of Intent with Panda Perkiomen Power. The Allentown City Council has not reviewed or voted on the proposal. No other industries purchase treated effluent from Kline’s Island.

• The Panda Perkiomen generating station will have an on-site water treatment facility to purify the treated effluent for use in the boilers. Liquid ammonia, sulfuric acid, caustics, and sodium hypochlorite will also be added during the electrical generation process and will be present in the wastewater load returning to Kline’s Island.

• The volume of water in the Lehigh River is directly related to temperature fluctuations and ph levels of the river. During worst flow or drought conditions (200 cubic feet per second) the Panda Perkiomen generating station would deplete the volume of the Lehigh River by 5%, at 300 cubic feet per second there would be a 4% reduction in volume.

• The Panda Perkiomen generating station is proposed for an area which is a sub-basin for the Perkiomen Creek watershed - an environmentally sensitive area containing wetlands, floodplains, and alluvial soils which are an important part of the hydrologic cycle, riparian corridor, and wildlife habitats.

• Stormwater runoff from the Panda Perkiomen generating station will be channeled into a detention basin for slow release into the Perkiomen Creek. However, the best stormwater management design for a development of this size in a critical water recharge area is to recharge the volume of water which would normally percolate using infiltration storm drain systems. The remainder of the additional flow could be retained in infiltration basins which increase the volume of water recharging the aquifer and aid in normalizing the flow of water in the aquifer to mitigate against critical groundwater supply problems during low rain periods.

• Stormwater detention basins exhibit thermal pollution or an increase in water temperature. Changes in water levels, temperature, and velocity of flow associated with stormwater runoff could disrupt the feeding and reproduction cycles of existing aquatic life.

Last modified: 25 January 2000

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