Newsday (Nassau Edition) from Hempstead, New York • 10

imeceikidm Utilities Resolve Storm King Dispute Installation by PASNY and Con Edison of angled screens aft their Indian Point nuclear units to divert fish Establishment at an animal cost of $2 million of a biological monitoring program to study power plant impacts All the utilities but Niagara Mohawk also agreed that for 25 years they will not propose to construct electric generating stations without closed-cycle cooling anywhere along the Hudson north of the George Washington Bridge Whether the $38 million Con Edison has spent on the Storm King project can be passedon to consumers remains to be decii decided by the PSC The cost to the utilities under the i ment is expected to be about $18 million The new equipment and procedures are expected to reduce fish kills by 35 per cent according to Russell Train former EPA head who served as private mediator during the negotiations The utilities Con Edison the Power Authority of the State of New York the CentralIudaon Gas Electric Corp the Orange Rockland Utilities Ine and Niagara Mohawk Power Corp also agreed to construct and operate a hatchery for 600000 three-inch striped bass fingerlings annually and to provide a $12-million endowment for a foundation that will do independent research on the effect of power plants on fish They also agreed to pay up to $500000 of the legal fees incurred by the National Resources Defense Council which led the environmentalist legal team Other points of the agreement include: Shutting of the six major generating units at Indian Point Bowline and Roaeton for part of the May-August spawning and nursery season Utility officials said they would try to schedule refueling and maintenance outages for the same time Donation by Con Edison of its river frontage property at Storm King and a connected reservoir area on the mountain to the Palisades Interstate Park Commission and the Village of Cornwall for park purposes Installation of special pumps and establishment of new limits on pumping rates to minimise water withdrawals New York (AP) Five utilities with plants along the Hudson River reached agreement yesterday with environmental groups and government agencies on a 16-year dispute over the effects of power plants on river life Under the landmark agreement reached after 20 months of intensive negotiations Consolidated Edison agreed to surrender its license to build a 2000-megawatt pump-storage hydroelectric plant on Rattlesnake Creek in Cornwall-on-the-Hudson The project has been better known as Storm King the name of a nearby mountain and a national symbol of environmentalist resistance since 1964 The utilities in a settlement with national implications said they would spend millions to reduce fish kills by about 35 per cent stock the river with baby fish and study the effects their facilities have on aquatic life In return they will not be required to build cooling towers for six generating units along the banks saving them about $180 million annually The pact becomes effective after the State Public Service Commission approves it a move expected before May At issue was the effect of open-cycle operation of power both conventional and nuclear on fish and other river life In an open-cycle operation the plant is cooled by water from an outside source The hot water is then discharged heating up the i surrounding water and endangering aquatic life In a closed-cycle system the mttip water continually is reused Albany New York first compre- hensive report on add rain says that one-quarter of Adirondack lakes and ponds are too aridic to sustain most fish life According to the 80-page report released yesterday by the Bureau of Fisheries 11000 acres of lakes and ponds have critical add levels and another 63000 acres are endangered A department spokesman said the study was a wrap-up of earlier reports and dirlne nothing substantially new State officials say means the water probably cant support even add-tolerant spedes such as brook trout Lakes and ponds on the list have acidity levels very close to Cable for Tram Plunges Again Clogging Traffic NEWSDAY SATURDAY DECEMBER 20 Comblned News Services New York For the second time this month a cable fell off the dosed aerial tram that connects Roosevelt Island and Muir hattan yesterday morning dogging rush-hour traffic and dangling dangerously over the East River No one was hurt but the State Urban Development Coup which operates the tram line spanning the East River immediately terminated work by the maintenance firm repairing the cable and began an investigation The first cable fell Dec 2 and waa damaged Yesterday a new $20000 3-inch-thick cable was being installed to replace the one that fell At 8:06 AM the new one fell too striking 60th Street First Avenue and the FDR Drive between 59th and 62nd streets were dosed The accident snarled morning rush-hour traffic The streets were opened several hours later The US Coast Guard halted river traffic for more than three hours because the cable sagged so low Acting Mayor Nathan Leventhal called the repeated failure "nothing short of a Since beginning operation in May 1976 the tram has been the mjor connection between home and Manhattan far the 5500 residents of Roosevelt Island in the East River between Manhattan and Queens About 6000 people a day pay the 60-eent fore for the four minute-long crosaing 250 feet above the river It waa not known if the new cable would have to be replaced Richard A Kahan of the' state Urban Development Corp aid in a statement that he had ordered a "special investigation of the accident caused by VSL Corp of Berne flwitniUefl in the course of maintenance He said Charles A Stillman a farmer U8 utter-ney would try to determine whether VSL "has bean guilty of gross negligence and extreme lack of regard and concern for public interest and He said the tram would remain closed until the investigation waa complete Bus service will be provided to Queens and Manhattan for island residents The tram was first dosed Nov 8 for routine repairs induding Herbert Iibert of North Woodmen kn-wpleceinent of the existing cable The first schedule called for a MTA xrember said last night he believed an Nov 26 reopening but when pressure on the cables was released wnmld Vm i wViirK flu ww 1 during the work a cement beam became dislodged and had to be buses ready far delivery would be accepted In repaired That pushed the date for resumption of service back to thstcmae he said they would have to be modi- Dec 15 nT9iAfter the Dec 2 incident they hopadfor yK similar to many of those already rectfeedsiis teieiiaption of tram Service aJuo nit igo7 syian ing borrowed from Washington DC expected to arrive in the city today and go' into service Monday morning Grumman haw said it would pay for repairs to the damaged buses whin wen taken off the streets a week ago became of cracked undercarriages But MTA Chairman Richard Ravitch said the board was debating "how the costa an among the MTA the city and Grumman A mechanic for the Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority in Landover Md tunes up one of Washington's buses for transport to New York The buses ate expected to be in use Monday MTA Stalled on Bus Dispute New York The Metropolitan Transportation Authority failed in a five-hour meeting yesterday to resolve the dispute over its sidelined fleet of faulty Grumman Fbtible buses MTA offidals said they would meet again in dosed session at 5 PM Monday in quest of a settlement with Grumman Lawyers for MTA and Grumman were to continue talks this weekend but no representative of the firm attended meeting Under consideration are how the 637 idled buses should be repaired how any future defects will be handled whether to accept 200 more Grumman buses on which delivery has been stopped and whether to contract far another 53K needed the ity UMTiwliiU flee nf ehent HO Knaee Ke-.