An Empirical Methodology for Estimating Entrainment Losses at Power Plants Sited on Estuaries

A model based on empirically derived age-, time-, and space-variant entrainment susceptibility data may be used for estimating conditional entrainment mortality of aquatic organisms, partic­ ularly fish and shellfish, caused by operation of one or more power plants on an estuary. Model application requires knowledge of the morphometry of the water body, the power-plant flow rates, the probability of entrainment survival, and the duration, distribution, and abundance of en trainable age-groups. A novel feature of the model is that organism distribution and movement within the model are defined by information derived from field samples rather than by hydro­ dynamic principles and equations. Section 316(b) of United States Public Law 92-500 has stimulated numerous endeavors aimed at predicting or assessing mortality of aquatic organisms due to entrainment in pow­ er-plant cooling water. Models for predicting