Reducing fish kills

EVERY year, tens of millions of fish, hundreds of millions of fish eggs, and billions of fish larvae are killed by being sucked into the cooling water intakes at FirstEnergy Corp.'s Bay Shore power plant. The problem has been evident for years. It's time for a solution, not experiments.

Sportfishing directly and indirectly adds some $800 million to Ohio's economy every year. Recreational fishing adds millions of dollars to the economies of the other seven states bordering the Great Lakes as well.

No place is more important to that multibillion-dollar industry than the warm, shallow waters of western Lake Erie, including Maumee Bay and the Maumee River. Lake Erie produces more fish than lakes Huron, Michigan, Superior, and Ontario combined. Lake Erie's most productive spawning grounds are on Toledo's doorstep.

But Bay Shore, which sits at the confluence of the river and lake, kills 60 million fish every year, more than all the other power generating plants in Ohio combined. That the lake's population of walleye, yellow perch, white bass, and other fish has managed to thrive is a testament to the lake's immense fertility.

Power companies, including FirstEnergy, have been aware of the problem for years, but have shown little inclination to do anything about it. Toledo Edison's parent company has succeeded so well at dragging its feet that a decade after the U.S. Environmental Agency decided to stop the killing, nothing has been done.

Even now, instead of implementing a known solution, the Akron-based electric company is being allowed to waste at least another two years experimenting with louvers it hopes will divert fish from the intake channels.

A better path would be to embrace a known, environmentally friendly solution. A cooling tower would reduce the plant's need for water, thus slashing fish kills by more than 90 percent.

Doing anything else is just swimming against the current.