Assessment of the Biological Effects of the
Charles Poletti Power Plant on the East River

Charles Poletti Power Plant, aerial view.

The 825-MW Charles Poletti Power Plant, operated by the New York Power Authority (NYPA), is located on the East River in New York, and supplies power to over 10,000 public facilities and many residents and businesses in the greater New York area. In operation since 1977, the plant’s shoreline intake and discharge into the East River, potentially affected fish populations inhabiting the East River, Long Island Sound, the lower Hudson River estuary and New York Harbor, and Raritan Bay. To assess the biological effects of the plant, PBS&J provided overall program management, data management, data analysis, and GIS mapping services, as part of a joint venture with LMS Engineers.

Because of the plant’s location, special problems posed in this assessment were the large number of species potentially affected and the number and geographical extent of water bodies inhabited. In-plant sampling conducted year-round at the plant from 1999 through 2003 identified over 60 fish species entrained or impinged. Estimates of numbers of young-of-year fish entrained and impinged at the plant exceeded 100 million organisms annually. As a measure of impact, NYPA sought to estimate the conditional mortality rate (CMR) of ten target fish species, which required different approaches and methods due to the variations in life histories of the target species. The PBS&J/LMS joint venture coordinated the activities of five consulting firms and one academic institution in the performance of 14 complex project components to produce CMR estimates for the target species.