ML19343B849

Testimony on Behalf of Util Re Hinderstein Contention 5 Concerning Coastal Site.Tera Corp Coastal Site Comparison Rept, Encl

ML19343B849
Person / Time
Site:	Allens Creek File:Houston Lighting and Power Company icon.png
Issue date:	12/18/1980
From:	Schoenberg E TERA CORP.
To:
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i DIRECT TESTIMONY OF EDWIN E. SCHOENBERGER ON BEHALF OF HOUSTON LIGHTING & POWER COMPANY RE HINDERSTEIN CONTENTICN. 5/ COASTAL SITE t

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8012800 7 3 3

l DIRECT TESTIMONY OF EDWIN E. SCHOENBERGER RE COASTAL SITE 1

Q. Please state your name and position. l 2 A. My name is Edwin E. Schoenberger. I ma a Vice  !

l 3 President of TERA, a company specializing in energy and i 4 environmental engd.neering.

1 -

Q. Please describe your educational background.

6 I have a B.S. degree from the U.S. Naval Academy A.

I and an M.S. degree from The Ohio State University in Nuclear 8 Engineering.

9 Please describa your employment experience.

Q.

10 A. Following my graduation from the U.S. Naval 11 Academy in 1964, I served in the U.S. Navy's nuclear sub-12 marine program for five years. During this period I performed 13 duties as Engineering Officer of the Watch on the SIC nuclear 14 submarina reactor prototype and the S5W nuclear submarine 15 reactor. Following my graduation from Ohio Stata in 1970, 16 I went to work for Bechtel Power Corporation, a leading 17 architectural and engineering firm engaged in power plant 18 design. While at Bechtel I worked on the engineering and 19 licensing of the Hope Creek and Limerick nuclear plants.

l 20 With respect to the Limerick plant I was the supervisor 1

1 21 in charge of both environmental and safety licensing matters.

22 In 1973 I went to work for TERA and during my employment i

23 with TERA I have participated in and directed numerous power 24 plant siting studies. I have conducted siting studies for u

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1 1 Houston Lighting & Power Company, Central Power & Light 2 Company, West Texas Utilities Company, City Public Service 3 Board of San Antonio, Public Service Company of Oklahoma,.

4 Southwestern Public Service Company, Lower Colorado River 5 Authority and Texas Municipal Power Agency.-

6 Are you.a Registered Professional Engineer?

Q.

7 A. Yes, I sn a registered Mechanical Engineer and a 8 registered Nuclear Engineer.

9 Q. What is the purposa of your testimony?

10 A. I have been asked by HL&P to testify in connection 11 with Hinderstein Contention 5, which is basically as follows:

12 " Petitioner alleges that, in light of the in-creasing demands upon fresh water, the possibility of 13 an alternative site on the Texas Coast to utilize sea water as a coolant should.be explored."

14 13 Q. Have you conducted an evaluation of potential 16 coastal sites in or near HL&P's service area?

17 A. Yes. In 1974 TERA was retained by HL&P, for 18 reasons unrelated to the present case, to undertake an 19 extensive study of potential future sites for the location 20 of new power plants. The study results were published in 21 1975. In the study we identified approximately 200 potential 22 sites.

23 Q. How does this study relate to the contention in 24 l

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1 question?

2 A. When I was asked to address the contention, I 3 reexamined our 1975 study to determine if there were any 4 coastal sites suitable as alternatives to the Allens Creek 5 site. Tha 1975 TERA study area included not only the totality 6 of Houston Lighting & Power Company's- service area, but also 7 included a significant land area outside of the HL&P service 8 area. The area which was screened for sites covered an area 9 of approximately 24,000 squara miles in and around the HL&P 10 service area.. The regional screening phase of the study 11 allowed us to screen out the areas where we knew that there 12 could not ba a potential sita due to factora such as inade-13 quate water supply, undesirable aquifer characteristics, 14 geologic hazards, or high population. densities and/or con-15 flicting land uses. Therefore, by definition, sites identi-16 fied in the remaining region (Candidate Area) can be assumed 17 to be viable sites, with further, more detailed evaluation 18 being required to determine any ranking among the sites.

19 Out of the sites catalogued in the study, there were seven 20 coastal sites that could be considered for comparison with f

1 21 Allens Creek. I have undertaken an analysis of each of 22 those sites and compared them with the Allens Creek site.

23 The factors used in the comparative analysis are described 24 later in my testimony.  !

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1 Did you prepare a separate coastal siting study Q.

2

, summarizing your analysis?

I l 3 A. Yes. The study is presented here as Applicant 4

Exhibit (EES 1).

l 5 What conclusion did you reach in your coastal Q.

6 siting study?

I A. It was concluded that none of the coastal sites l

8 are superior to the Allens Creek site for purposes of siting 9 a nuclear plant.

l 10 Q. Was the Allens Creek site covered in 'the 1975 11 study?

12 A, At the tina of our 1975 study the Allens Creek 13 site was treated as an existing two unit site at which two l

14 additional units might be added. In order to prepare the 15 analysis in Exhibit EES 1, I had to reevaluate the Allens 16 Creek site as though it were a new site thereby treating it 17 in the same manner as the other sites in our 1975 study. The 13 Allens Creek site was rated on the same rating scale as the 19 seven coastal sites.to insure that there was no bias in 20 comparing the Allens Creek site to these sites. The informa-21 tion in Exhibit EES 1 is consistent with, but not a substitute 22 for, the more detailed information in Applicant's environ-23 mental and safety reports.

24 Q. Was the Brazoria County site in the 1975 study?

1 A. The B:-l site in Brazoria County, which is 25 2 miles southwest of Galveston, was evaluated in January, 3 1979, in response to questions from the NRC Staff in con-4 nection with the Staff's updated alternativa sites evalua-5 tion. Both EL&P and the Staff had previously rejected the i

6 San Jacinto Basin on the basis of water availability. How-7 ever, under the NRC's practice, it was determined that it 8 was necessary to identify a specific site in this region. ,

9 TERA was retained to make this evaluation and the Brazoria 10 County site was selected for purposes of the, evaluation 11 sought by the NRC staff. Coincidentally, the Brazoria 12 County sita is a coastal site so I included it in the com-13 parison provided in Exhibit EES 1.

14 Q. Would you pleasa list the sites that were con-15 sidered in EES l?

16 A. They are as follow 3:

17 Nearest Type of Heat Site County Communities Dissipation System 18 19 Au-l Austin 4 mi. NW of Wallis; Cooling Pond (Allens 8 mi. SE.of Sealy; 45 (Freshwater) 20 Creek) mi. W of Houston 32-1 Brazoria 15 mi. NE of Freeport; Once Through 21 25 mi. SW of Galveston; (Saltwater) 22 50 mi. SSE of Houston Ch-1 Chambers 5 mi. NW of Winnie; 10 Cooling Pond 23 mi. S of Nome; 57 mi. (Saltwater) 24 E of Houston

1 l

3

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Nearest Type of Heat.

Site County Communities Dissipation System 2

l Je-2 Jefferson 27 mi. SW of Port Cooling Pond 3

Arthur; 9 mi. NE of (Saltwater)

! High Island; 67 mi. E 4

of Houston t

L g Je-3 Jefferson & 5 mi. N of High Island; Cooling Pond Chambers 13 mi. S of Winnie; 60 (Saltwater) g mi. E of Houston Ma-1 Matagorda 2 mi. SE of Sargeant; Cooling Pond 13 mi. S of Sweeney; (Saltwater) l g 65 mi. SW of Houston l

9 Ma-2 Matagorda 7 mi W of Sargeant; Cooling Pond 15 mi. SW of Bay City; (Saltwater) 70 mi. SW of Houston 10 3, Ma-3 Matagorda 9 mi, NE of Matagcrda: Cooling Pond 13 mi. S of Bay City; (Saltwater) 73 mi. SW of Houston 2

13 The location of each of these sites is shown on Figure 3.2-1 14 of Exhibit EES 1.

! 15 Q. Please describe the factors you used in comparing 16 these sites.

17 A. Each of these sites were evaluated on the basis of 18 several site selection facrors, including (1) geology and 19 seismology, (2) meteorology, (3) hydrology, (4) ecology, (5) 20 demography, (6) land use, (7) aesthetics, (8) transporta-21 tion, and (9) economics. Exhibit EES 1 contains an analysis l

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22 of each of the sites based on each of these factors. The l

l 23 final rating is shown on the Candidate Site Evaluation 1

l 24 Matrix, Figure 3.5-1 of Exhibit EES 1. As can be seen, the l

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1 Allens Creek site had the highest overall ranking on the 2

Matrix.

3 Q. How was the Matrix developed?

4 A. The Matrix was developed by using both quantitative 5

and qualitative evaluation methods,to rate each candidata site 6

based upon the factors I described earlier. The qualitative 7

assessment provides a means for rating the intangible or non-8 quantifiable features of each site. The quantitative assess-9 ment is primarily a numerical evaluation of economic, environ-10 mental and licensing evaluation factors. The method involves 11 rating each factor using a zero-to-fi' e scale, where zero is 12 least desirabia and five is most desirable. For each of the 13 factors, an evaluation is made of relevant characteristics to 14 establish the appropriate numerical ratinc. Appendix A of Ex-15 hibit EES 1 provides the definitions for the rating system.

16 Q. Why did you use the ccmbination of qualitative and 17 quantitative analyses?

18 A. Either approach alone is a legitimate basis for 19 this type of evaluation process. When the two are combined 20 they complement and serve as a check on each other.

21 Q. Was each rating factor in the quantitative assess-22 ment given equal weight?

23 A. No. The factors were weighted in order to account for 24 the relative importance of each of the factors. The weights 1 given to each factor are described in Exhibit EES-1. The 2

numerical rating given to each category for each site is 3

multiplied by the appropriate weighting factor. The overall 4

site rating number is obtained by totaling the various 5 categories for each site. The sites with the highest total 6 would naturally be the most desirable.

7 Q. Did you conduct any sensitivity analysis in order 8 to make certain that the rankings wera not biased by the 9 weighting scale or other factors?

10 A. Yes. Sensitivity analyses were conducted on both 11 the site rankings presented on the Matrix and the economic 12 evaluation discussed in Section 3.3 of Exhibit EES 1 to 13 determine the-significance of parameter variation on site 14 evaluation. The sensitivity analysis results demonstrate 15 that the Allens Creek site remains the highest ranked site 16 and is insensitive to 40% changes in economic, environmental l

17 and licensing weighting factors.

18 Q. What was the result of your qualitative analysis?

, 19 A. As can be seen from an examination of the Matrix, 1

20 every site but Bz-l was considered acceptable from the stand-l 21 point of environmental and licensing considerations, which is l 22 in keeping with the definition of Candidate Area. Thus, it is 23 obvious that the sites selected were viable sites for con-24 sideration as alternatives to the Allens Creek site. In-1 deed, the six sites selected were the top six coastal sites 2 in our 1975 study. -

3 Q. Taking into account both quantitative and qualita-4 tive evaluations, what was your conclusion regarding the 5 acceptability of the sites you examined?

6 A. None of the sites rated higher than the Allens 7 Creek site in terms of overall ranking. More importantly,

'l 8 none of the sites rated as environmentally superior to 9 Allens Creek.

10 Q. Would you please provide a brief summary on each 11 site?

12 A. The Brazoria County (BZ-1) site is comparable to 13 the Allens Creek only on the factors of meteorology, hydrology 14 and demography. However, the site rated unacceptable on the 15 factors of geology and ecology. With respect to geology, l

16 this site is located in an area of salt dome influence which raises a potential for subsurface fault activity. Moreover, 17 18 the site is in a potential hurricane washover channel.

19 With respect to the ecological factors, this site is located

, 20 in a coastal region considered to be of particular environ-l mental concern. Construction and operation activities such 21 22 as dredging, spoil placement and operation of a cooling 23 water intake system and thermal discharge system could affect the biota of Saint Louis Pass, Cold Pass, Churchill 24

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1 Bayou, Christmas Bay and the near-shore Gulf, and possibly 2 cause significant negative ecological impacts.

3 The Chambers County (Ch-1) site is comparable to the 4 Allens Creek site in terms of meteorology, ecology and 5 demography; however, this site rated undesirable in terns of 6 land use considerations. The land on this site is very 7 valuable agricultural land because it is presently used for 8 rice farming.

9 The first Jefferson County (Je-2) site rated comparably 10 to the Allens Creek site in terms of meteorology, demography 11 and land use, but was rated low on the basis of ecology.

12 This site is almost completely marshland and thus provides 13 an extensive habitat area for waterfowl. The marsh may 14 serve as a nursery ground for marine species such as shrimp, 15 crab and various fishes.

16 The second Jefferson County (Je-3) site is comparable 17 to the Allens Creek site in the areas of meteorology and 18 demography. In no instance did any of the factors compare 19 more favorably with respect to this site than at the Allens 20 Creek site and in at least two instances, ecology and 21 aesthetics, the Allens Creek site was superior.

22 The first Matagorda County (Ma-1) alte rated comparably 23 with the Allens Creek site in terms of meteorology and 24 demography; however, it received a lower rating on all other 1

factors, and in at least two instances, ecology and aesthetics ,

1 was ranked as marginally acceptable.

3 The second Matagorda County (Ma-2) site is comparable 4

with the Allens Creek site only in terms of meteorology and 5 demography. Tha site rated lass favo'rably than Allens Creek 6

on every other factor, and again was considered marginally 7 acceptable on the factors of ecology and aesthetics for the 1 8 same reasons as the Ma-1 site.

9 The third Matagorda County (Ma-3) site is comparable

• 0 with Allens Creek in terms of meteorology and demography.

11 It had a lower rcting than Allens Creek in every other 12 category, and was considered marginally acceptable in 13 aesthetics. Like siter Ma-L and Ma-2, the topography of the 14 site area is very flat and the reactor building complex and 15 transmission lines would be visible from the town of Matagorda, 16 the Intercoastal Waterway, Matagorda Bay and the highways 17 near the area.

l 18 Q. As a general matter, is it likely that any coastal 1

19 site would be supericr to the Allens Creek site from an 20 environmental standpoint?

21 A. No. Coastal sites are often located in or adja-22 cent to marshland areas. Construction in these marshland 23 areas can impact the productivity of the marshland, and thus 1

i 24 the productivity of the Gulf Coast offshore areas. While l __

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I such an affect is not necessarily significant, no such 2

complication exists at Allens Creek. Moreover, the use cf 3

salt water requires construction of intake and discharge 4

facilities that are more likely to be an ecological threat 5

l than the intake and discharga facilities to be located in 6

the Brazos River at the Allens Creek site. The portion of I the Brazos River passing near the Allens Cr unc site is not a 8

highly productive area from the standpoin't of aquatic or-9 ganisms. By contrast, where you are dealing with the intake 10 and discharge structures for the use of saltwater cooling, 11 there is necessarily a greater potential for impingement and 12 entrainment losses than would be associated with operation 13 of intake and discharge facilities for the Allens Creek pro-14 ject. Therefore, in this case, I do not believe a coastal 1

i 15 site is likely to be more ecologically desirable than the 16 Allens Creek site.

l l

17 Q. Would your answer be different if you were to l

18 assume the use of salt water cooling towers on those sites 1

19 where you assumed the use of a cooling pond for purposes of 20 your evaluation? ,

21 A. No, it would not. When all of the environmental /

22 licensing site evaluation factors are considered together, 23 the relative rankings of the coastal sites would not change 24 relative to the Allens Creek site. The major environmental 1 factor considered in analy=ing the use of salt water towers 2 in utility service is that of salt water drift atd its 3 resultant deposition. Drift damage will affect local vegeta-4 tion, switch yard equipment, parked automobiles, housing and 5 other structures in the site vicinity. There are also 6 problems with blowdown from the tower basin, fogging and 7 icing, noise and aesthetics. In my opinion local ecological 8 impacts would be approximately equal for both salt water 9 cooling lakes and towers since the additional land preempted 10 by a cooling lake is essentially offset by losses caused by 11 salt deposition associated with cooling towers.

12 Q. Does that conclude your testimony?

13 A. Yes.

14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 1

23 24

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COASTAL SITE COMPARISON REPORT seree to Houston Lighting & Power Company P.O. Box 1700 Houston, Texas 77001 November,1980 TERA CORPORATK)N 3131 Turtle Creek Boulevord Dolfos, Texas 75219 214-528-4980 1

M otoV. coa W 00= 1 l Bemoscat W l soton mouge trus,ma Do6 Mar. Cotiorno l No wn. % vcn l

i San Arth T.cs Derwor Comoroco Los Angoest Corcumo l

TABLE OF CONTENTS Section P_oge 1.0 NTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-1 2.0 REGIONAL SCREENING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-1 2.1 Int roduc t ion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-1 2.2 Methodology . . .................. 2-1 2.2.1 Screening Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-3 1 2.2.1.1 Geology and Seistnology . . . . . . . . 2-3 2.2.1.2 Hydrulogy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-18 2.2.l.3 Ecology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-26 2.2.1.4 Land Use .............. 2-35 2.2.1.5 Demography . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-39 2.2.1.6 Meteorology . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-41 2.2.1.7 Transportation . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-43 2.2.1.8 Generation Station and Transmission Lines 2-44 2.2.1.9 Previously Studied Power Plant Sites .. 2-45 2.3 Candidate Area Designation ............. 2-45 3.0 CANDIDATE SITE EVALUATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-1 3.1 Introduc tion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-1 3.2 M e t hodo logy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-1 l 3.3 Candidate Site Evoluotion Factors. . . . . . . ... 3-5 3.3.1 Engineering and Economic Evoluotion . . . . . . 3-5 3.3.2 Environmental Factors. . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-6 3.3.3 Licensing Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-6 3.4 Presentation of Site Data .............. 3-9 3.4.1 Summary Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-9 3.4.2 Site Economic Ranking ............ 3-10 3.4.3 Site Data .................. 3-1l l 3.5 Results ...................... 3-13 3.5.1 Site Evaluation Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-13 3.5.1.1 Subjective Evaluation Method. . . . . . 3-17 3.5.1.2 Numerical Evaluation Method. . . . . . 3-17 l

! 3.5.2 Sensitivity Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-18 i

I 3.5.2.1 Weighting Factor Sensitivity Analysis . . 3-18 l 3.5.2.2 Economic Evaluation Sensitivity Analysis. 3-21 l

4.0 REFERENCES

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-1 l

APPENDIX A SITE EVALUATION FACTORS . . . . . . . . . . . . A-l l TERACORPORATION 1

l l

l

LIST OF TABLES Table h 2.2 - 1 Fault and Photo Lineation Definitions . . . . . . . . .. 2-6 2.2.2 Surface Geology Units Assigned to Construction Suitability Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 2-17 2.2-3 Groundwater Criteria for Site Selection . . . . . . . .. 2-21 2.2-4 Land Use Evoluotion Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 2-36 2.2-5 Population Criteria for Use in Site Selection . . . . . .. 2-40 3.2- 1 Summary Site Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-3 3.3- 1 Minimum Distance from Plant Area to Transportation ,

Routes (Reference 3-5) ................ 3-8 3.4-1 Economic Ranking .................. 3-12 ,

3.5-l Condidate Site Ranking Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-14 ,

3.5-2 Economic, and Environmente.' and Licensing Weighting l Factor Sensitivity Analysis for Condidate Site Rankings .. 3-19 t

3.5-3 Site Ranking Summary for Cases l Through 8 . . . . . . . 3-22 3.5-4 Case i Economic Ranking Variation of Sources Heat Dissipation System Variation = -20% . . . . . . .. 3-23 3.5-5 Case 2 Economic Ranking Variation of Sources Heat Dissipation System Variation = +20% . . . . . . . . 3-24 3.5-6 Case 3 Economic Ranking Variation of Sources Transmission System Variation = -20% . . . . . . . . . . 3-25 .

3.5-7 Case 4 Economic Ranking Variation of Sources Transmission System Variation = +20% . . . . . . . . .. 3-26 3.5-8 Case 5 Economic Ranking Variation of Sources l Water Transport System Variation = -20% . . . . . . . . 3-27 3.5-9 Case 6 Economic Ranking Variation of Sources Water Transport System Variation = +20% . . . . . . . . 3-28

( 3.5-10 Case 7 Economic Fonking Variation of Sources Transportation ud Site Development Variation = -20%. . . 3-29 3.5-11 Case 8 Economic Ranking Variation of Sources Transportation and Site Development Variation = +20%. . . 3-30 1

TERACORPORATION

1 1

1 LIST OF FIGURES Figure No. g 3.2-1 Location Map of Condidate Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-4 3.5-1 Condidate Site Evoluotion Matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-15 l

l l

t TERACORPORATION l

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1.0 INTRODUCTION

l.1 BACKGROUND in 1974 TERA was retained by Houston Lighting & Power Company (HL&P) to underteke on extensive study of potential future sites for the location of new power plants. The study results were published in 1975. In the 1975 study, TERA identified 16 new power plant sites, and catalogued a total of opproximately 200 potential sites, in 1979 Houston Lighting & Power Company retained TERA Corporation to prepare testimony related to Hinderstein Contention 5:

" Petitioner alleges that, in light of the increasing demands upon fresh water, the possibility of an alternative site on the Texas coast to utilize seawater os a coolant should be explored."

TERA reexamined its 1975 study to determine if there were any coastal sites suitable for consideration as alternatives for the Allens Creek site. In this regord, the 1975 study crea included not only the totality of Houston Lighting &

Power Company's service creo, but also included a significant land crea outside of the HL&P service creo. The crea which was screened for sites is on area bounded to the west by longitude 96 30', to the north by latitude 30 45', to the east by the Neches River and to the south by the Gulf of Mexico, on crea including opproximately 24,000 square miles. The regional screening phase of l the 1975 study allowed us to screen out the areas where we knew that there could not be a potential site due to factors such as inadequate water supply, undesirable aquifer chorocteristics, geologic hozords, or high population densities

( and/or conflicting land uses. Therefore, by definition, sites identified in the remaining region (condidate crea) con be assumed to be viable sites, with l

l-l TERACORPORATION 1

l . . _ . -- . .- -

E further, more detailed evaluation being required to determine the more desirable sites. Out of the sites catalogued in the 1975 study, TERA determined that ,

seven coastal sites were proper for compar: son with Allens Creek.

1.2 OBJECTIVE The primary objective of this coastal site comparison is to compare the seven coastal sites identified in the 1975 study with the Allens Creek site, and determine if any of these coastal sites are superior to the Allens Creek site for purposes of siting a nuclear power plant.

l.3 PLAN OF APPROACH The overall plan of opproach was developed to meet known regulatory require-ments and, in addition, to take into account engineering, economic, environ-mental and current licensing practice.

The siting study was performed in three phases:

1. Regional Screening II. Selection of Condidate Site Alternatives l

Ill. Site Selection 1

PHASE I: REGIONAL SCREENING l

In the Regional Screening Phase, the 1975 site study region was established, and c detailed review of existing siting reports and other published information was l

conducted.

The regional screening phase of the study was conducted. This phase delineated those creas within the study region which contained creas of such serious concern that it appeared unproductive to seek sites in those regions. The regional screening criteria excluded creas with inadequate water supplies; arcos l

l-2 TERACORPORATION

with undesirable aquifer chorocteristics; crecs with geologic hozords; areas with high population densities and creas with conflicting land use planning objectives; and identified the presence of other regional screening attributes.

After finalizing the site selection criterio, the regional screening was performed.

A series of regional screening maps was developed and utilized to conduct the regional screening. The various screening maps included:

- Geologic Map

- Surface Lineers and Faults Map

- Subsurface Foults Map

- Mineral Resources Map

- Geologic Hazards Map

- Land-Use Map

- - Construction Suitability Map

- Flood-Prone Areas Map

- Aquifer Map

- Inland Water Availability Map

- Normal-Flow Water Quality Map

- Low-Flow Water Quality Map

- Demography Map

- Environmentally Sensitive Areas Map - Founo

- Environmentally Sensitive Areas Map - Floro

- Meteorology Map l

- Transportation Map

- Aircraft Flight Zones Map I

' - Generating Stations and Transmission Lines Map

- Previously Studied Power Plant Sites Map l-3 TERACORPORATION

Areas of the study region within which licensable cost-effective condidate sites could be selected were identified by considering certain of the regional screening criterio described above to be exclusionary. A composite map was thus prepared which eliminated certain creas based upon those criterio. The remaining nm-

! excluded creas were designated as candidate creas. As a result of this level of screening, creas unlikely to contain occeptable power plant sites are effectively removed from further consideration. Thus, candidate sites selected in condi-date creos are likely to be economically and environmentally acceptable and licensable.

I PHASE II: SELECTION OF CANDIDATE SITE ALTERNATIVES 1

l The dato and information collected during Phase I concerning the condidate creas were reviewed and, where appropriate, odditional information was col-lected to further refine the evaluations. Within the favorable condidate areas, a set of condidate site alternatives was identified. The factors used in selecting these alternatives were essentially those factors shown on regional screening maps, except that they were analyzed in greater depth.

A cost effectiveness comparison of the condidate site alternatives was con-ducted using the appropriate factors from NRC Regulatory Guide 4.2, "Prepara-tion of Environmental Reports for Nuclear Power Stations."

PHASE 111: SITE SELECTION i

l The evaluations conducted in Phase 11 were reviewed and modified or revised as required to further characterize the areas. This process become necessary as additional detailed information was acquired as the site selection became more specific. An overall economic ranking of sites was established and a comparison of values for site selection evaluation factors was prepared.

1-4 TERACORPORATION

l l

l 2.0 REGIONAL SCREENING

2.1 INTRODUCTION

i After est'.blishment of the 1975 site study region and a detailed review of existing literature, the regional screening phase of the study was conducted.

This phase delineated those creas within the study region which contained orecs of such serious concern that it appeared unproductive to seek sites in those

! regions. The regional screening criterio excluded areas of high population l density; creas with inadequate water supplies; areas with undesirable oquifer chorocteristics; and creas with conflicting l<nd use planning objectives.

As a result of this screetiing, the various licensable arcos were identified and designated as condidate creas.

2.2 METHODOLOGY Regional screening was accomplished by performing the following tasks:

l ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SITE STUDY REGION 1

l The 1975 site study region was established using logical geographical and licensing considerations. The study crea included not only all of the Houston

( Lighting & Power Company service creo, but also significant land area outside of l the norse.-I Nuston Lighting & Power boundaries. It is bounded to the west by longitvie 96 30'; to the north by latitude 30 45'; to the east by the Neches River and to the south by the Texas territorial boundary in the Gulf of Mexico.

The western boundary was established based on three criterio: power load center i location, transmission line distance, and safety. The Houston Lighting & Power Company load center is located south of Houston which then provided on economic western boundary based on transmission losses and lood flow.

Concentrated student jet training creas are located on Motagordo Island and l

I directly north of Motagordo Island. These creas were excluded due to safety considerations.

2-1 l TERACORPORA110N

The northern boundcry was established based on three criterio: power lood center location, transmission line distance, and land use. The Houston Lighting

& Power Compmy lood center location establishes on economic northern boundcry based on transmission losses and load flow. The Som Houston National Forest is directly north of Houston and was considered excluded by land use. The crea within the forest was excluded from being a condidate creo.

The eastern boundary was established based on the natural geographic delineo-tion formed by the Texas-Louisiono state border on the Gulf Coast and the Neches River. Sites east of the river were considered to be outside of the economically feasible boundaries.

The southern boundary was formed by the Texas State territorial limits into the Gulf of Mexico. These limits extend 3 marine leagues (10-l/3 miles) into the Gulf from the coast.

REVIEW OF EXISTING REPORTS Existing sitir4 reports, the Allens Creek Environmental Report, and South Texas Project Environmental Report were reviewed in order to compile existing dato and thereby cvoid duplication of data collection.

COLLECTION OF INFORMATION The information requirements were reviewed and data not already held was collected. This new dato included information from relevant unpublished investigations cnd reports. The information sources utilized are provided in the j list of references (Section 4.0).

l COMPARISON OF INFORMATON SOURCES For the 1975 study, collected information was correlated md controdictions l were investigated. Where differences could not be readily clarified, the more l conservative information was utilized.

2-2 i TERACORPORATON 1

l

PERFORMANCE OF REGIONAL SCREENING The collected information cnd opproved evoluotion criteria were used to chorocterize the region Ly developing a set of regional screening maps.

2.2.1 SCREENING FACTORS 2.2.1.1 GEOLOGY AND SEISMOLOGY EVALUATION CRITERIA The NRC hos promulgated guidance concerning the criterio by which a proposed nuclear power plant should be evoluoted with respect to seismic, geologic, and topographic information (References 2-1 and 2-2). Basically, the worst creas of geologic hozord should be avoided. Any site where a geologic event has either induced c disaster in the past, or might induce one in the future, should be avoided. The most restrictive safety-related site chorocteristics considered in determining the suitability of a site are surfoce faulting, potential ground motion and foundation conditions (including liquification, subsidence and landside poten-tial, Reference 2-3).

Areas preferred for nuclear power plants have good soil stability, limited topographic relief and adequate drainage. Although in most cases unstable natural surfnce slopes con be dealt with through good engineering, creas where the problem does not exist are preferred.

Investigative criteria to evoluote subsider.ce and its effects are presented in 10 CFR 100 Appendix A (Reference 2-l). In the regional study, creas of potential surface disruption from octivities such as heavy petroleum or groundwater withdrawal mining, and underground solution cavities were avoided.

l REGIONAL GEOLOGY The geologic surface of the study region is composed entirely of sedimentary l

strato deposited since the Eocene, that is, within the lost 60 million years. The 2-3 TERACORPORATION

sediments cre unconsolidated or poorly consolidated gravels, sands, silts md clays brought to the coast by rivers during Gulfword progradotion of successive delta systems. The sediments of the region are differentiated in two time intervals, the Terticry-Pleistocene and the Modern-Holocene.

e Tertiary-Pleistocene systems cre composed of fluvial (river), fluviol-delicic (river-delta - delta-mcrine) and strandplain sediments. The fluvial system is composed of coarse-groined sediments deposited in braided streams, cocrse- and fine-grained meanderbeits and alluvial fans.

These sediments are the most consolidcted of the sedi-ments in the crea and are locally cemented. The fluvial

-deltoic system contains fine- to <ery fine-grained mean-derbeits, cbandoned chonnels, and deltos. The dello focies include distributary sands, interdistributory muds, and deltofront smds. The strondplain focies, deposited along ancient coasts by long-shore currents, are well-sorted, medium-grained smd bodies.

e Modern-Holocene systems include fluvial-deltaic, barrier-strondplain, and marsh focies. The fluviol-deltaic system includes levees, overbank muds, entrenched-volley fill, meanderbeit sends, interdistributcry silts and muds, and mud-filled chonnels. Modern barrier island and coastal beach sands make up the barrier-strandplain system. The marsh system includes mud, silt, and organic material of fresh water swomps, and fresh and soit water marshes in estuaries, logoons and tidal flats.

Genetic or geologic process mcps more occurately delinecte sediment chorocter than the strict formational maps of the Geologic Atlas of Texas.

1 Regional geology provides the foundation for understanding the nature of surfoce matericts and is the data base for derivative mcps. Construction suitability and aquifer maps cre examples of derivative maps used in the regional screening or l cost comparison proce< 3es.

The regional geology mcp was compiled using mcps by Proctor (Reference 2-4),

Fisher and others (Reference 2-5) and Achelobhuti (Reference 2-6). Proctor's l

l map was the geologic base for the crea east of Motagorda, Wharton and Colorado 1

l I

l l TB?ACORPORATION 1

Counties. From the coast to 50 miles inland, Proctor's map was itself based on earlier work by Fisher and others (Reference 2-7). Proctor mapped the rest of his area on large-scale oerial photographs. Data for the area west of the boundaries of Proctor's map, from the coast to 50 miles inland, was obtained from Fisher and others (Reference 2-5). The small remaining area was covered by Acholabhuti. All map units are consistent with the terminology of Proctor.

SURFACE LINEARS AND FAULTS t

l Surface faults, photo-linears and sections of photo-lineers coincident with the surface traces of subsurface faults were mopped.

Also mapped were segments of projected subsurface faults that coincide with a photo-linear. Linears were plotted for the area from the coast to 50 miles inland; however, these linears are not considered to be of any geological significance unless they correlate with faults.

Subsurfoce fault projections were mode for the entire study crea except for a large circular crea centered on Houston which was excluded from site considera-I tion by demography. Definitons of surface faults, growth faults (foult subject to creep), subsurface faults and photo-lineations as used in the regional screening process are listed in Table 2.2-l.

Movement along faults in the Houston crea occurs as slow fault creep rather than catastrophic movement. For this reason, earthquakes are not expected to be associated with fracturing along these faults. Furthermore, earthquake foci are known to eccur where faults juxtopose crystalline rocks. The faults along l

the Texas Coastal Plain are included entirely within the sedimentary rock section that overlies the crystalline basement rocks.

Although ground shaking and other problems associated with fault seismicity are improbable in the Houston area, ground surface displocements are common on f many of the identified surface faults. Total scorp heights range up to os much as 40 feet at the Hockley scarp northwest of Houston (Reference 2-8). Rates of 2-5 TERACORPORATION

TABLE 2.2-1 FAULT AND PHOTO-LINEATION DEFINITIONS

1. Surface Fault:

A fault recognized on the land surfoce by: (1) disruption of man-made objects, for example, breaks in street pavements, foundations, highways cnd airport runways; (2) topographic l scorps defined by an abrupt steepening of land surfoce either in flat areas or creas of gentle slope; (3) sharp breaks in rates of subsidence as determined from cumulative topographic profiles; and (4) anomalies in natural patterns such as drainage or vegetation. (Reference 2-7).

2. Capable Foult:

A surface fault that has experienced movement in the last 35,000 years.

3. Sut, surface Fault:

A fault identified by various subsurface geologic and geophysi-col evidence such as lithologic well-logs, subsurfoce maps, cross sections, trenches, reflection and refraction seismology and geophysical well logs.

4. Photo-Lineation:

A visual lineation on air photo maps which suggests closer inspection for the possibility of a possible fault.

5. Growth Fault:

A fault subject to creep. The creep surface was formed I contemporaneously with sediment deposition such that strata

! are typically thicker on the downthrown side and the magnitude l of displacement increases with depth.

l l

l 2-6 TERACORPORATION

movement along faults in the Houston-Golveston creo range from 0.8 inches per year to 4.7 inches per year with m overoge of 1.3 inches per year (Reference 2-9). These faults are copoble of cousing structural damoge, as evidenced by damoge to airport runways, highways, railroad tracks and buildings.

Surface faults and the surfoce trace of subsurface faults show strong parallelism and in some cases are coincident. Many subsurface faults die out before reaching the surface. Brown and others (Reference 2-8) state:

"The similarity in trend of surfoce and subsurface faults indicates that most surface faults are probably genetical-ly related either to long-trending coastwise fault systems extending upward from several thousand feet below sur-face and/or to faults associated with the numerous salt domes of the creo. Faults radiating from salt domes may explain why some surfoce faults trend perpendicular to the common coastwise trend. Where verified, the associa-tion between surfoce and subsurface faults indicate that some surface faults are products of natural geologic processes."

Surface faults in the northwestern port of the study region were taken from i Bornes (References 2-12 and 2-13). The lineers and surface faults near Houston I

are from Fisher and others (Reference 2-7) and a prepublication map by Fisher and others (Reference 2-5). The coincident parts of the photo-lineors and subsurface fault projections were determined by overlaying one map m the other and designating the coincident sections. Where there is no correlation between photo lincors and subsurface fault projections the linear may be disregarded for geologic purposes.

The projection of subsurface faults to the surface was mode by using a standard cross-section profile for Gulf Coast growth faults and determining the horizontal offset between the subsurface and surface traces. The fault was then replotted in the offset position, parallel to its subsurface trace.

2-7 TERACORPORATION

MINERAL RESOURCES Locations of known, probable and possible oil and gas, sulfur, and coal or lignite deposits were mapped. Five hundred forty-six (546) oil and gas fields cover approximately 2200 square miles. Thirteen sulfur deposits may cover os much as 42 squore miles of the study region. Three identifiable zones containing coal or lignite underlie 12,000 square miles. Coal or lignite occurs at the surface outcrop to depths greater than 8,000 feet which cre for below current and projected mining depths. The quality of this coal and lignite ranges from moderate to poor. Therefore, coal and lignite deposits of every quality and depth were identified separately. Contour lines were used to indicate the formation, the number of coal and lignite beds within the formation and their elevations.

The location of mineral resource deposits is needed in regional screening for power plant sites to:

e Indicate crecs that may be susceptible to subsidence because of subsurface mineral extraction; substantial ground surfoce subsidence may accompany mineral extraction. More than three feet of land surface subsi-dence is attributed to oil and gas extraction in the Goose Creek oil field (Prett & Johnson,1926). Poor production practices in early history of the field are believed to have been the primary cause of this subsidence. Surface subsidence has accompanied extraction of sulfur by the Frasch process at Hoskins Mound, Brazoria County, Texas, and at Boling Dome, Wharton County, Texas.

e Minimize interference with extraction of mineral resources. Because spot shortages of many minerals occur with increasing frequency and the cost of these commodities continues to increase os richer and more convenient deposits are exhausted, government regulatory agencies are instituting policies to insure that land-use patterns do not preclude ultimate extraction of valuable mineral resources.

e Assess the susceptobility of a site to potential occidents at nearby mineral production. Such occidents include oil or gas well blow-outs, mine explosions and explosions or fires in a mineral processing plant.

2-8 TERA CORPORATION

To reduce possib!e siGg problems associated with mineral resources, potential sites impinging on known mineral extraction were, in general, eliminated from considerations. A Mineral Resources Map was developed using tie following sources e The outlines of the oil and gas fields on the regional maps were taken from the Texas Highway Department's county highway maps, which are published at a scale of 1/4 inch =

l mile. One or two maps cover on entire county, showing roads, pipelines, individual oil and gas wells, oil and gas field outlines, electrical transmission lines, buildings, windmills, and other cultural features. The oldest cul-l tural base map used for the compilation of the mineral resources map was published in 1962; the majority were published in 1968 or later. Where individual oil and gas i wells were shown on the county maps, the field boundary

! was defined by drawing a line around the outermost wells

(

of a group. When the fields were delineated on the county highway maps, the boundary was used without modifica-tion. The oil and gas fields shown on the highway maps were checked against the Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Corporation map of the Texas Gulf Coast. This map, I published in 1973 at a scale of approximately 1/8 inch = l l

mile, shows oil and gas fields and major petroleum trans-mission pipelines. Any discrepancies between the two sources were resolved by using the larger of the field j oreas shown on either mop.

e Sulfur production on the upper Texas Gulf Coast comes from the gypsum, onhydrite, limestone and dolomite cop-rock on the top of shallow piercement salt domes. The names of sulfur-productive domes are listed by Ellison (Reference 2-14). The location of these domes and their areal extent were obtained from the Tectonic Map of Gulf Coast Region U.S.A. (Gulf Coast Association of Geolog-ical Societies and American Association of Petroleum Geologists,1972, scale 1:1,000,000). The areas of sulfur production were increased to coincide with the dome area.

e The distribution of lignite cnd cool deposits was taken i from open-file maps by Fisher and others at the Texas j Bureau of Economic Geology. The elevation of the l various lignite-bearing formation tops were derived from subsurfoce structural contour maps (Scale I:48,000)of the Geomop Company (Dallos), a petroleum industry service company.

2-9 TERACORPORATION

GEOLOGIC HAZARDS A Geologic Hazards Map was prepared showing the location of: zones of influence surrounding salt domes and shale diapirs; hurricane washover channels; and zones of shoreline erosion or accretion. Another geologic hozord of the Texas Coastal zone is subsidence. These geologic features and processes require careful evaluation in determining the suitability of a site located on the Texas coastal plain because of the following:

e Salt domes and shale diopirs could cause possible large-scale differential ground movement due to:

- direct uplif t by the dome

- subsidence of the rim syncline

- discrete motion along tropdoor faults or cresta!

stretch faults

- subsidence or fault octivity resulting from the ex-traction of oil, gas, sulfur, water or sand from the dome or the sediments peripheral to it.

e Hurricane washover channels are storm-created posses activated as storm surge waters cross barrier islands. The hurricane surge waters cause erosion, deep floods and tidal flows of high velocity which would cause severe damage to structures.

e Shoreline erosion con occur at very high rates. This could cause a site initially protected by a barrier island to have portions of its structures become offshore during the life of the plant. Such a site would have to be bordered by a sea wall and elevated or diked to provide hurricane surge tide protection.

Subsidence when occurring locally con cause foundation problems. These problems are commonly associated with differential ground movement across growth faults und the resulting changes in slope gradients.

Other geologic hazards of the Texas coastal zone include flooding and ground surface displacement across faults. The latter two subjects are sufficiently important to have been treated separately.

2-10 TERA CORPORATION

l

)

1 I

SALT DOMES AND SHALE DIAPIRS j Salt domes are tall spires of salt 1/2 to 10 miles in diameth extending ;;. ord from deeply buried " mother" salt beds. Uneven sediment loading of the mother salt bed causes the salt to be squeezed from beneath the sediments into salt spires or domes. This causes the dome to grow upwards, uplifting and arching the sediments overlying the dome, which in turn are broken and fYoctured in the process. The withdrawal of salt from the crea peripheral to the dome results in the formation of a rim syncline or subsidence moot around the dome. Shale l

diapirs are thought to have identical origins. The area of influence around both salt domes and shale diapirs is offectal by growth of the feature.

Uplift of the ground surface is evidenced on many domes along the Texas and Louisiano coastal plain (for example, Weeks Island and Avery Island in Louisiano and High Island, Barbers Hill, Spindletop and Hoskins Mount on the upper Texas coast). Across each of these domes, the ground surfoce is elevated as much as 50 feet above the surrounding coastal plain. At Barbers Hill, a late Pleistocene alluvial channel (less than 10,000 years old) has been uplifted a minimum of 36 feet since its deposition. Uplift over the other domes cited likely occurs at even l

l greater rates, but the evidence is not as definitive.

Subsidence of the rim syncline is not obvious at the surfoce because the resulting I

topographic depression is continuously filled with sediment. However, sub-surface exploration demonstrates that this activity is continuous with dome growth.

Ground surface disruption is also a hozord in these influence zones. The geologic record proves o direct cause-effect relationship between dome growth and both trapdoor faults and crestal stretch faults. Growth faults of both types have been observed at Mykowo Dome in southeast Houston. Movement along these faults has broken street pavements anc' s>>1ys at Hobby Airport and has disrupted the foundation of many structures m t; e aTc.

2-11 TERACORPORA110N

I ScP domes are commonly the hosts for many valuable mineral deposits. The extraction of these minerals hos commonly led to groend surfoce subsidence and rupture within a relatively small zone of influence. For example, over two feet of subsidence and 16 inches of differentici vertical fault movement is associated with oil, gas, and water production et Goose Creek Oilfield (Harris County), IS feet of subsidence hos been recorded at Hoskins Mound (Brazoric County) as o result of sulfur mining and naturcl colicpse over the crest of many Gulf Coast domes con be traced to leoching of the soit by percolating ground water.

The salt domes and shale diapirs were identified on subsurface structural contour mcps (scale 1:48,000) published by the Geomcp Company in July, 1974. A mapped structure was designated a salt dome or mud dicpir if the feature exhibited more then 1,000 feet of closed structural relief within a distance of 4,000 feet and the structure possessed a radici fracture system. The boundary of the relatively small zone of influence wcs defined by a line connecting the exis of oil the synclines immediately adjocent to and surrounding the structure.

HURRICANE WASHOVER CHANNELS Washover channels usually develop through blowouts on poorly developed fore-isicnd dunes cnd becch ridges. Before hurricane landfall, water flows inland through these low ploces scouring a channel and depositing sediment in washover fans in the adjocent boy or lagoon. After the hurricane posses, the elevated wcters behind the islands return to the Gulf through the chcnnel leaving cn open pcss ceross the islend. These channels are active only during hurricanes.

Generally they cre filled with sediment on the Gulfwcrd side within a few days cfter the hurricane posses. Behind the beach, on open channel may remain for many months (Reference 2-8). Importantly, the some chcnnels cre opened each time a hurricone mckes Icndfall in the creo end, to dcte, most structures built estride hurriccne chcnnels have been destroyed by washover.

The locctions of hurricone washover chonnels were tcken from Fisher and others (Reference 2-7). These chcnnels were identified on topographic mcps and oerict photographs cs elongated topogrcphic expressions and were verified by historical monitoring.

2-12 TERACORPORATICN

SHORE EROSION AND ACCRETION Shorelines throughout the study region are continuously changing because of natural processes.

The barrier islands of the Texas Coast are enormous sand bars,1/2 to I mile f

wide, which lie parallel to the coastline about 3 to 5 miles seaward from it.

These islands are the products of coastal marine processes and are continuously l being shaped by these processes first building the beach and the dunes behind it and then destroying them.

Segments of the Texas shoreline are being eroded at high rates. Mecsurements of shoreline loss in excess of 10 feet per year are common. Where reliable data are present, rates of up to 23 feet per year have been documented. (For example, Morton (Reference 2-15) recorded 900 feet of shoreline loss in 40 years.) Because the barrier islands are narrow, a plant sited on one would likely extend across the entire breadth of the island. Such a site would have to be bordered by a seawall for protection. At least a portion of any such site would become " offshore" during the life of the plant, regardless of protection offorded it. This problem is compounded by the fact that the site would have to be elevated or diked to protect against hurricane surge tides which commonly exceed 12 feet.

Shoreline processes were identified from maps by Fisher and others (Reference l 2-7), W. L. Leeper (personal communication,1974) and J. T. Woodman (personal communication,1974). Processes maps were prepared by comparing shoreline positions os shown on current maps or modern aerial photos, in a few locales, rates of erosion were octually measured by surveying coastline profiles and bench marks periodically.

2-13 TERACORPORATION 1

SUBSIDENCE Two types, regional and locci, offeet the study crec.

e Regional subsidence effects approximetely 7S% of the cocstal plain. It oppears to crise from both naturcl and ~

man-mode causes. Subsidence hos occurred nectly con-tinuously along the cocstcl zone for et lecst the lost 60 million yects. Regional subsidence results in extremely smcIl slope grodient changes producing very slow subsi-dence rates and is not thought to trigger fault octivity.

The cumulative subsidence over this time span (60 million yects) is 60,000 feet, or cbout one foot per 1,000 yects.

This natural subsidence probcbly continues today but it is ciecrly not significant in planning a power plant site.

e Local subsidence, in the majority of ecses, is caused by pumooge of Icrge qucntities of ground water, which lowers the potentiometric surface in oquifers and causes dewetering of cicys surrounding the oquifer sands. The volume of the c!cys is thus reduced cnd the land surfoce subsides.

At the present time, nectly 230 squcre miles in the study crec have experienced subsidence in excess of five feet.

The maximum subsidence recorded in the crea is 8.5 feet (Reference 2-8). Subsidence increases the probability that both flood and tidal waters will inundote o site crec.

Brown cnd others (Reference 2-8) cite the following " . . .

if storm tides with the some surge height as those genercted by Hurricane Ccric in 1961 were to strike upper Galveston Boy today (1974), on additional 70 squcre miles of subsiding lands . . . would be flooded by hurricane-surge wat er."

Local subsidence clso results in changes in the Icnd surface gradient cnd slope reversals are common.

Gravity-flow systems cre typically rendered useless by such elevation changes and pump-flow systems are ciso offected cdversely.

In the pcst crecs subject to local subsidence cre believed to have been elimincted cs potential picnt sites for the following recsons:

e Regions of oil fields or salt domes have been excluded, thereby elimincting locci subsidence crecs ossociated with these regions.

2-14 TERACOpoCMTON

e Urban and suburban regions have been excluded because of demographic considerations, thereby eliminating local subsidence creos associated with these regions. Brown and others (Reference 2-8), in a comprehensive study of subsidence, showed that areas of significant subsidence were confined to urban and suburban areas.

CONSTRUCTION SUITABILITY A Construction Suitability Map was prepared using geologic units judged to have similar soils engineering characteristics that were combined into four basic suitability groups: clay and mud; sand; clayey sand and silt; and marshland. The surface distribution of these construction suitability units reflect the deposi-tional patterns of modern or c.1cient rivers, with their associated channel, floodplain, delta and marsh envirorments. The clays and muds are deposited on delta plains along the borders of river systems in abandoned channels and locally in boys, lagoons and coastal lakes. Sands are deposited in point bars by mecndering rivers, in channels by braided rivers and in barrier islands by near-shore marine processes. Clayey sands and silts are ossociated with river systems, alluvial fans and the fronts of deltos. These three units are defined for both rnodern and ancient systems. However, only modern marshlands were identified. They are located inland of the current barrier islands and along some river systems.

The construction suitability map offords a simple, reasonably occurate method for judging the construction problems and costs ossociated with locating a facility at any particular location.

Kier and Bell (Reference 2-16) have demonstrated that various depositionally related sediment assemblages characteristically have identifable soils engineer-ing test characteristics. In their study the mean, stcridard deviation and the number of soil test samples were calculated in order to relate these parameters l to both the depth below the surface and the geologic unit. The engineering properties were found to be precisely defined in end-member units (that is, for dcminantly mud or dominantly sand units) but showed a wider variation in composite units (that is, in sandy at or silty mud units). This means that for certain types of geologi units engineering properties may be predicted 2-15 TERACORPORATION

accurately even though no test dato are available, and reasonable estimates con be made for all mapped ur, ts. _,

The surface geology units assigned to each of the construction suitability groups are given in Table 2.2-2. These groups are basically the some os used by Fisher and others (Reference 2-7) with the exceptions that all marsh, swamp, and tidal flots were mapped as one group and Fisher's " mode fond or spoil" category was "

eliminated. The construction.svitability map, because it is a derivative geologic mop, covered the same port of the study region as the geologic map.

The construction suitability units were not used to eliminate potential plant sites. Rather, knowledge of construction properties of each site were used to l ossess relative economic penalties for construction at each site. Factors included in the onolysis were excavation difficulities, foundation stability, ground-water drainage and protection, stability in the presence of ground vibrations, availability of barrow material and leakage protection in the cooling pond.

The methods of Kier and Bell (Reference 2-16) were employed in this study.

Because of a lock of published engineering test dato on surficial units in the Houston oreo, the test values obtained by Kier and Bell for similar geologic units in the Corpus Christi crea were used in this study.

The vcriations in engineering properties between the construction suitability groups were used to determine the relative construction costs at various sites.

By comparing these variations, different construction costs were calculated for the specific sites selected in the screening process.

TERA CORPORATION

TABLE 2.2-2 SURFACE GEOLOGY UNITS ASSIGNED TO CONSTRUCTION SUITABILITY GROUPS Construction Suitability Group Surf ace Geology Nomencloture Nor,enclature

1. Dominantly Clay I. Floodplain, overbank mud and silt "d M"d 2. Floodbosin, overbank mud and silt, proirie

3. Floodbosin, mud veneer over meanderbeit sand, gross-covered l

4. Interdistributary mud, including boy, floodbosin, and local abandoned channel focies S. Floodbosin, overbank mud

6. Interdistributary silt and mud, includes locally boy, locus-trine, and crevosse splay facies ll. Dominantly Sand I. Broided, coarse-groin meanderbeit sand and gravel

2. Strandplain sand with prominent occretion ridges

3. Beach, beoch ridge, and barrier flot, sand and shell 111. Dominantly Clayey 1. Fine-grained meanderbeit sand with prominent groin S*d "d Sil' 2. Meanderbeit sand and fine gravel

3. Alluvial fan, sand, along southern margin of upland fluvial deposits

4. Meanderbeit sand, with prominent grain, gross-covered

5. Meanderbeit sed, heavily tree-covered

6. Distributory and fluvial sands and silts, including levee and crevasse spicy deposits

7. Marine deltoic sand, detto front and reworked delta focies

8. Levee and locally crevasse spicy oeposits, silt, mud ed sand

9. Meanderbeit sand, inoctive, composes, primary sediment within filled (nonentrenched) valley, including levee, crevasse spicy, and locally floodbosin mud dspmits

10. Fluvial sand and floodbosin mud, undif ferentiated, inoctive, with an entrenched volley ll. Meanderbeit sand with prominent grain, inactive (terroce deposits)

! IV. Marshes and Swamps 1. Coastal marsh, solt, brockish cruf fresh-water 2-l7 TERACORPORATION

2.2.1.2 HYDROLOGY EVALUATION CRITERIA T FLOODING 1

t The NRC has promulgated guidance concerning the criteria by which a proposed -4 nuclear power plant site should be evoluoted with respect to flooding information (Reference 2-1, 2-3, and 2-19). Basically these describe methods of determining design basis and probable maximum floods along streams or rivers and discuss ,

comparable floods for coastal and estuary sites. Flooding in general does not exclude possible sites, but becomes on economic penalty as increased flood q protection is required.

WATER QUALITY The basic water quality requirements that were considered when conducting the study were that the design and operation of the facility would comply with the intent of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, as amended by the Cleon Water Act of 1977 (commonly referred to os the Clean Water Act Reference  !

2-20) and the Texas Water Quality Act.

Effluent limitations for discharges from steam electric power plants (40CFR423) were first promulgated by the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in October 1974 and have subsequently been revised on several occasions

(Reference 2-21). These regulations specify quality leYels which must be met by the various waste streams which may be discharged from steam electric power l plants.

The EPA approved the water quality standards developed under the Texas Water Quality Act for use when developing discharge specific federal waste discharge permit conditions on February 9,1976 (Reference 2-22). The purpose of these I standards is to maintain the quality of the surface waters within the state':

l jurisdiction consistent with public health and enjoyment, the propagation and l

1 2-18 TERACORPORATION

l protection of terrestrial and aquatic life, the operation of existing industries, and the economic development of the state.

Stearn electric power plants can, and indeed have, been designed so that their liquid waste discharges comply with Texas and Federal waste discharge permit requirements. Therefore, surface water quahty is generally not on environ-mental regional screening consideration. Surface water quality, however, con have a significant impact on plant construction, operations and mnintenance costs. Generally, the most significant cost impacts of surface water quality are those associated with the main condenser cooling system.

l 40CFR423 requires that new steam electric power plants be designed with recirculating main condenser cooling systems using either cooling towers or ponds. However, Section 316(o) of the Clean Water Act states that:

" ...whenever [it] . . . con be demonstrated . . . that any effluent limitation proposed for the control of the thermal component of limitations more[o]. . . . than stringent discharge . . . to necessary will require assure the effluent protec-tion and propagation of a balanced, indigenous population of shell fish, fish, and wildlife in and on the body of water into which the discharge is to be made the [ EPA may issue less stringent effluent limitations.]"

i As a consequence of 40CFR423, Section 316(o) of the Clean Water Act, EPA interpretations of what is required to maintain "bolonced indigenous populo-I tion . . .", (see 40CFRl25), and their definition of a " cooling pond"; it is generally considered that new steam electric power plants cannot be designed using fresh or brackish water nonrecirculating (once-through) main condenser cooling l

systems. The length of time required and costs incurred in developing the l information necessary for a Section 316(o) " demonstration" for " cooling lakes" and/or once-through cooling systems using seawater are extensive and the results of the EPA review of the information developed are uncertain. Therefore, designs including " cooling lakes" or once-through cooling systems using seawater l

must be opproached on a site-by-site basis with extreme caution.

l 2-19 TERACORPORATION

l i

e i The requirements of Section 316(b) of the Clean Water Act con also have a significant impact on cooling system design. This Section of the Act requires that: ~'

. . . the location, design, construction, and capacity of cooling -

water intake structures reflect the best technology ovcilable for minimizing adverse environmental impacts."

The EPA guidelines which have been published to assist designers in interpreting the requirements of Section 316(b) of the Act present descriptive rnaterial on state-of-the-art cooling water intake structure designs. The guidelines present information on how to minimize damage to aquaiic organisms.

In summary, although water quality is not a significant environmental regional screening factor it con have a significant impact on plant costs and can result in ,

the rejection of condidate sites.

GROUNDWATER PROTECTION Protection of groundwater supplies is a requirement for the qualification of a site as suitable for a nuclear power plant. For groundwater used by the plant, the sustained yield of the groundwater system should not be exceeded, i.e.,

groundwater mining will require special evaluation.

l 1

The location and uses of groundwater at the potential site must be considered in the selection process if any discharge water to the groundwnter system, planned l or inadvertent, may occur. The criteria listed in Table 2.2-3 are used for groundwater protection.

l l

l l

2-20 TERA CORPORATION

TABLE 2.2 3 GROUNDWATER CRITERI A FOR SITE SELECTIOta Category Roting Chorocteristics Most Acceptoble 3 Areos underloin to o great depth (of at least 1,000 feet) by o dense oquiclude of geographicolly brood extent; there is no significant underlying groundwater; or, alternatively, ground-water of unusable quality underlies site below impermeoble section noted obove, with no oquifer dischorge outlet or devel-opment potential with equifer trcrvel-distance necessary for decay of possible rodiooctive contaminants.

Acceptobte 2 1. Areos undericin by oquifer containing groundwoter of poor cuality,with no significant notural barrier to downword seepoge from the ground suffoce; the water toDie is no snollower than opproximately 50 feet below the ground surface; there ore no oovifer discharge outlets, or development potential within oquif er travel-distance necessory for decoy of possible rocio-octive contaminants. (Key portions of plant area would be underseoled with a minimum loyer of 10 feet of impervicus compocted cicy to prevent downword seepage of operational or other casvol polivtonts).

2. Areas underloin by a thick oquicluce of substoritial thick-ness (at least several hundreds of feet) of geographically brood extent; on oquifer containing groundwater of usoble cuotify underlies impermeable section; there ore no faults, joints, fissures, or obscure well bores within site creo which could transmit surfoce contaminants downward.

i 1. Areos overlying lowermost portion of ortesion ocuifer Conditionotiv system in which piezometric heod is substantially above the Acceptoble Icrid surface or there is existing or irnpending meons of enhanc.

ing ocuifer recharge and controlling creo well usoge, which.

consistent with historical piezometric head fluctuations, assures that the head con be continuously mointoined above the land surfoce during critical dry periods. (Existing water auclity is not critical to this conditions however, site acceptooility would be enhanced if underlying artesion groundwater is of ooor and/or unusable quality.)

2. Areas underloin by a sequence 200 feet or more thick of interbedded cicy, silt and sand strato that are not of aquifer quolity or that have very limited potential use and that otso either c)overley on oquifer containing groundwofer of uscDie quality that con be demonstrated by onsite tests and monitoring to not be hydraulicolly connected to the surface sequence or b)are the upd:p time stratigraphic equivalents to a downdip oquifer containing groundwater of usable quality; the two sequences con be shown to not be hydraulicolly connected by on-site tests or; downdip seepoge of groundwater con be fotolly holted by the construction of suitable hydrologic barriers on the sit e.

0 1.

Areas directly overlying usable oquifers, with no significant Unocceptable natural barrier to downward seepoge from the ground surfoce.

2. Arecs directly upstream of the recharge intoke creo aquifer systems.

2-21 TERACORPORNION

am AVAILABILITY OF COOLING WATER The water supply for Allens Creek is guaranteed by contract with the Brazos River Authority. It is assumed that salt water is freely available for the coastal sites.

FLOOD PRONE AREAS Lands subject to flooding by either fresh or marine waters were mapped. Three areas having different flooding chorocteristics are identified: uplands, coastal l plain and coast. ,.

e Uplands l

Areas designated as flood prone in the uplands encompass the so-called 100-year floodplain. Although flooding is not as likely in creas not designated as flood prone, there is still some possibility for flooding in these areas.

Flood waters recede rapidly in upland areas and flood protection outside of designated flood prone creas is commonly simple and inexpensive. This simple protection ,

is possible because in the uplc 4, relatively steep hill-slopes and channels quickly trunsport rainfall out of the creo. In the upland drainage basins, flooding is associated with excessive rainfall. Boundaries of inundated areas and depths of flood waters vary considerably from year to l year.

e Coastal Plain On the coastal plain, slopes are very flat, channels are less efficient than in uplands, channel depths are modest in view of discharge requirements, and topography between drainages is typically low and easily flooded.

These conditions lead to ponding and flooding. Because of the shallow gradients, flood waters recede slowly. Plants

built on the coastal plain generally will incur economic penalties for flood protection.

e Coast The coast is subject to flooding by both fresh water and marine water. Runoff from inland storms periodically floods all segments of the coast, but the greatest flood 2-22 TERACORPORATION t

1 hazards are associated with hurricanes. When a hurricane approaches land, the intense winds push marine waters across the coast, flooding areas as much as 15 to 20 miles inland. Salt water flood depths commonly exceed 10 feet and surge heights of over 16 feet were experienced at all places along the coast at least once during the last 100 years. Inland, the flood heights do not diminish occcrding to elevation because the surfoce of the surge tide is not horizontal, but is subparallel to the ground surface. For instance, flood depths 10 miles inland, where the elevo-tion is 15 to 20 feet, may be only 2 to 5 feet less than along the coast where the elevation is I to 4 feet.

Using mathematical models, Bodine (Reference 2-18) estimated surge heights on the Gulf Coosi. The surge height likely to be exceeded once every 100 years is 11 feet on beaches near Freeport and 13 feet near Galveston.

Fresh water flood depths along the coast are abnormally great following hurricanes because large rainfall totals occumulate over extensive inland creas and the surge tide elevation reduces coastal stream gradients, retarding the drainage of runoff. Current dato assemblage is insuffi-cient to present an accurate picture of expected fresh-water flood depths, which are likely governed by the difference between site elevation and nearby channel bank elevations.

Plants built on or near the coast will definitely incur economic penalties with I regard to protection from flooding. Identification of flood prone areas in the upknds, on the coastal plain and on the coast itself during the regional screening provides information by which the economic penalties associated with flood hazard protection for specific site areas con be estimated.

The information utilized to map the flood prone areas was derived from these sources: the United States Geological Survey's flood prone area maps, Fisher and others (References 2-7), and the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology's Hurricane Flooding - Bay City and Port Lavaco crea maps. The Geological Survey's flood-prone crea maps cover approximately 30% of the study region. These large-scale maps (1:24,000 scale) have been prepared as part of a federal flood insurance program and cover most urban oreos. The maps show the approximate boundaries of flood-prone areas, stating that "There is, on the average, about I l chance in 100 that the designated areas will be inundated in any year."

2-23 TERA CORPORATION

The United States Geological Survey bases their calculations of flood levels om regional discharge frequency studies of historical flood records, measures of _

drainage cru, hannel cross-sectional creo, and channel shape as determined from topographic base maps. From reg onal discharge frequency studies, flood i

formulos are developed which allow calculation of flood discharges from any watershed in the study creo based on physical characteris+ics of the basin.

After an estimate has been mode of the peak discharge expected on several tributories, the floods are routed along streamlines by computer to determine their cumulative downstream effect. With the peak discharge established, the ,

extent of inundation along any channel con be calculated by measuring channel characteristics from the base map.

I The flood prone creas determined by the Geological Survey were transferred to Flood Prone Areas Mop. For the 70% of tha study crea not covered by Geological Survey maps, the flood prone creas were extended upstream or downstream by linear interpolation between mapped crecs. For instance, if the distance between flood prone creas on a stream was l0,000 feet and the ,

difference in the elevation of the floodplain in the two mapped creas is 50 feet, .

it was assumed that the elevation of the 100-year floodplain changed 10 feet every 200 feet.

Areas subject to flooding from hurricane surge and hurricane rainfall were added to the previously described flood prone creas of the uplands cnd coastal plain.

Active processes and hurricane flooding maps prepared by the Texas Bureau of l

l Economic Geology were used to define these additional flood prone areas along the coast. The creal extent of inundation due to hurricanes included areas flooded either by Hurricane Beulah or Hurricane Carla.

l AQUlFER l

The ground water protection classification criteria was used in developing on Aquifer Map. This map essentially differentiates surface creas considered to be in direct communication with important artesion and water-table aquifers and 1

2-24  %

TERACORPORATION

oreas where the degree of hydraulic communication between ground and surface waters is undetermined.

An oquifer is in hydraulic communication with the surface water if surface water infiltrates into the subsurface.

Areas identified as being in direct hydraulic communication with equifers containing signficant quantities of usable quality water are classified as un-acceptable for o plant location. These unacceptable creas occur where no natural barriers to downward seepage of surface fluids occur and where artificial protection of underlying aquifers is considered impractical. Depositional units mapped as unacceptable because of their high permeabilities (greater than 10-3 cm/sec), cre:

e Meanderbeit scrids paralleling present rivers e Recent and ancient barrier island sands e Very coarse-grained fluvial deposits thought to be the outcrops of major aquifers.

f in the conditionally acceptable creas the hydraulic communication of surface and ground waters is highly variable and cannot be determined from existing geologic maps. Much of this area is underlain by aquitords that impede downward migration of surface water. Some of the area is in limited hydraulic communi-cation with the subsurface, and locally the hydraulic communication is direct. In all areas except those in direct hydraulic communication with the subsurface, aquifer protection requirements for nuclear power siting probably can be economically satisfied.

The Aquifer Map was const-rted by designating geologic units containing little or no silt and clay with their high permeabilities (greater than 10-3 cm/sec) as unacceptable siting creas. The designated geologic units were:

e Braided stream and coarse-grained meanderbeit sand and gravel l

2-25 i

TERACORPORATION

e Mecnderbelt sed md fire g-cvel e Alluviel-fan smd -

e Snondpicin sed with prominent oceretion ridges e Fivvict smd and floocbesin mud, undifferenticted, -

inactive within on entrenched volicy e Beoch, beoen ridge, md barrier flet, sand cnd shell __

To cicssify tnose crecs rot covered by the Geologie Mep, the Beaur, ant md -

Austin Sheets of the Geck >gic Atics of Texcs (Reference 2-12 cnd 2-13) were used. Oucterncry clievium cnd fluvicl terroce units shown en these sheets were cicssified cs unocceptccie mits. All other formctions er depositionc! mits were cicssified cs conditionctly acceptcb!e.

WATER CUALITY Wcter gclity in terms of totcl dissolved solids for low-flow md rormci-flow condificns wcs rncooed to shcw the water sclity in the study region.

Altnougn the rnmcgement of the cuclity of surfcre wcter is importmt, wcter cuclity per se is not c rncjor consideration in essessing the suitebility of a site beccuse adecucte der.'gn citernatives ecn generclly be develooed to meet the requirements of Stcte Water Ouclity Stenderds, the Federcl Wcter Pollutien Centrol Act md the BRC's reg;Icticns imp!ementieg BEPA (Refererce 2-3).

2.2.1.3 ECOLOGY EVALUATION CRITERI A The bcsic criteric is to cvoid crecs of imocrim; soecies, their 5ctitets, migrction routes cnd crecs of unique vegetation.

2-26 EA CCwWTCN

l l

A species, whether plant or animal, is considered important: (Reference 2-3) e if it is commercially or recreationally valuable l e if it is endangered or threatened e if the species or specific population has important or unique oesthetic or scientific value e if it affects the well-being of some important species within criteria above, or if it is critical to the structure and function of a valuable ecological system.

If important species are known to live in the vicinity of a site, long-term, on-site studies may be required to assess potential displacement, habitat and behavioral impacts, the results of which will likely be subject to controversy.

Special consideration is given to any of these ecological considerations in the vicinity of a potential power plant site which would be susceptible to environmental alterations brought about by the construction and operation of a particular type of power plant at the site. Design options employed at a favorable site could conceivably allow the use of the site for electric generation without impairing these ecological items. These considerations will have to be evaluated in detail on a site-specific basis ofter the prime site is selected and detailed environmental investigations are begun.

ENVIRONMENTALLY EENSITIVE AREA - FAUNA TERRESTRI AL FAUNA An Environmentally Sensitive Area Map - Fauna, was prepared showing those areas of important species and ecological systems which are ecologically sensitive. .

The study region contains two of the six biotic provinces delimited by Blair (Reference 2-23) based on the distribution of terrestrial vertebrates. In the 2-27 TERACORPORATION

study region, these provinces correspond closely to Gould's vegetational areas (Reference 2-24) as follows: _

e Austroriparian province includes the piney woods and the northeastern portion of the Gulf Prairies and Marshes; the -

Austroriparian fauna is typical of the moist forest of the southeastern U.S.

e Texas province includes most of the Gulf Prairies and ,

Marshes, the Blackland Prairies, and the Post Ook Savannah. The Texas province supports a fauna transi-tional between forest species to the east and grassland _

species to the west.

i ENDANGERED TERRESTRIAL FAUNA The crea under consideration supports several species of terrestrial vertebrates listed as endangered by the United States Department of Interior (Reference 2-25) and/or the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (Reference 2-26). When the 1975 study was conducted, the specie:, discussed below, appear on both lists unless otherwise indicated.

n e American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis). Alligators range throughout the area under consideration. Although officially listed as endangered, they are quite common in

! appropriate habitats in southeastern Texas. Unofficial estimates of over 40,000 alligators in Jefferson and '

Chambets Counties have been made. Alligators prefer river swamps, lakes, bayous and marshes. ,

e Artic peregrine falcon (Falcon peregrinus tundrius). This species migrates throughout Texas and winters in the eastern half of the state. Fall migrants move along the Texas coast with the heaviest concentrations along the mid and lower coast (Matagorda Island and south)(Refer-ence 2-30). They prefer open country. The decline of this species, like that of the brown pelican and bold eagle, has been linked to the accumulation of pesticide residues (Reference 2-31).

• Atlantic ridley turtle (Leoidochelys kemysi? This species is not listed by the USDT(Reference 2-25). 't n. y nppear irregularly along the Texas coast and has been rec,rded breeding south of the study area (Reference 2-32).

1 2-28 TERACORPORATION

e Attwater's prairie chicken (Tumpanuchus cupido attwateri). Attwater's prcirie chicken, once widesprM over the Texas coastal prairie, are now largely restricted to disjunct, remnant stands of native grasslands along the upper and mid Texas coasts. The distribution was con-structed mainly from maps and discussions in Lehmann (Reference 2-34) and Lehmann and Mauermann (Refer-ence 2-35). The largest colonies in the study crea occur in Galveston and Harrie Counties (250 birds), and Wharton Counties (450 birds). The decline of the prairie chicken

, has been attributed to habitat deterioration caused by rice forming, grazing and other man related activities.

e Brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis). Once a common resident along the Gulf Coast, this species now breeds only in certe'r. areas along the southern Texas coast. The northemmost nesting occurs around Port O' Conner, which is in the southeastern corner of the study area. Wintering birds occur along the full extent of the upper Texas coast.

The decline in this species is reportedly due to eggshell thinning caused by DDT residues (Reference 2-33).

e Eskimo curlew (Numenius borealis). This rare species, now near extinction, once migrated through the prairies of eastern and central Texas. It is now rarely seen along the Texas coast (Reference 2-36). The cause of its demise is not known.

e Florido manatee (Trichelus monatus). This species has l

been recorded in Texas in Cow Bayou, near Sabine Lake, Copano Bay, Laguna Modre, and the mouth of the Rio Grande (Reference 2-37). However, these records are based on occasional sightings; the presence of breeding populations in Texas has not been established. Althcrigh manatees are found chiefly in large rivers and brack.sh water boys, they can tolerate salt-water and move from ploce to place along the coast. Their threatened status is due in part to hunting pressure and low reproductive potential.

e Houston toad (Bufo houstonensis). This species, which currently maintains its largest populations in Bastrop County, is known in few localities in five southeastern Texas counties (Reference 2-27 and 2-28) where it occurs as small populations on sandy soils often in or near pine forests. It is probably extinct over much of the range (Reference 2-29) depicted in the faunal distribution maps.

The species seems to be losing ground due to interspecies hybridization apparently caused by habitat destruction.

TERACORPORATION

Mu e Ivory-billed woodpecker (Compehilus principales). The present distribution and status of th s rare species is poorly known with few recent authenticated records (Reference 2-25). It requires " overmature" hardwood forests with dead and dying trees which support its principal food, wood boring beetle larvae. Such habitat in southeastern Texas occurs sparingly in river bottoms, especially in the Big Thicket area. The near extinction of this species is due to habitat reduction.

e Red cockaded woodpecker (Dendrocopos borealis). Red cockaded woodpeckers occur in old age pine woodlands throughout the southeastern United S7ates and into east- _,

em Texas and Southeastern Oklahoma (Reference 2-38).

In Texas, it is known from isolated populations in 17 counties. It is restricted to pina forests having old, living trees infected with red-heart disease (Reference 2-25).

its endangered status is Icrgely a result of the forestry practice of removing such trees.

e Red Wolf (Canis rufus). Although once common through, out the southeastern United States from Florida to centrol Texas and north to southern Indiana, this species is now restricted to the upper Texas coast and adjacent Louisiano (Reference 2-40). It occurs in coastal prairie and marsh crecs. Riley and McBride (Reference 2-40) estimate that in the primary portion of the remaining red wolf range in Chambers, Jefferson, and southern Liberty Counties (on creo of about 1,260,000) acres) opproxi-motely 300 wolves remain. Much of the red wolf's former range in Texas and eastern Louisiana is now opparently occupied by a hybrid (red wolf x coyote) swarm (Refer-ence 2-41). Habitat destruction and competition and hybridization with the coyote, and possibly the domestic dog, has been largely responsible for the demise of the red wolf.

e Southern bold eagle (Halicietus leucocephalus leucoce-pholus). This rare species nests during the winter in lexas, primarily in estuarine creas. Probably fewer than 50 birds inhabit the state (Reference 2-42). Bald eagles l

j frequent the edges of rivers, takes, and the coast, feeding primarily on fish or carrion and nesting in tall trees near

the waters' edge. Bold eagle sightings in 1971-1973 were reported throughout the study crea with concentrations cround waterbodies (Reference 2-42). The highest con-centrations in the state occur clong the upper Texas coast from Calhoun through Galveston Counties.

2-30 TERA CORPORATION

Since the 1975 siting study was done, the status of some threatened and endangered species has changed. The American Alligator was reclassified from endangered to threatened within certain parts of its range (Federal Register 42:(6)2071-2077). The American Alligator is classified as a threatened species within the Texas coastal zone counties east of Corpus Christi. This includes most of the study region. The American Alligator is classified as on endangered species throughout the rest of its range in Texas.

The Atlantic Ridley turtle is now officially classified as on endangered species.

I In addition *o the Atlantic Ridley, three other sea furtles are endangered (green sea turtle, nowksbill, and leatherback), and one is threatened (loggerhead). All of these species may occur along the Texas Coast.

Attwater's prairie chicken is still on endangered species, but its range and population size continue to decrease. For all practical purposes, the species presently is restricted to Harris, Galveston, Fort Bend, Brazorio, Austin and Colorado counties in the study region, and only a few prairie chickens presently occur in Harris and Brazorio counties.

AQUATIC /ESTAURINE FAUNA The study region contains two of the eight wildlife areas used by Hubbs (1972) to define fish distributions within the state. The fauna reside in the drainoges, estuaries and offshore areas of seven Texas river systems. These are the lower Sabine, Neches, Trinity, San Jacinto, Brazos, San Bernard and Colorado river t

systems.

I l Three relatively large reservoirs (Houston, Livingston, and Conroe) occur within the study region. These reservoirs do support a commercial fishery. However, the intensity of fishing varies with the year and/or reservoir. The freshwater I commerical fishery within the study region is not considered significant.

Examination of available distributional patterns and species lists reveals that no rare or endangered freshwater fish species, as defined by United States 2-31 TERACORPORATION

~

Department of Interior (Reference 2-25) and Texas Organization for Endangered Species (Reference 2-44) are known to inhabit the study area.

The boys and estuaries of the region under consideration support a great diversity of life. The state and federal regulatory agencies are continuing to show considerable concern for the ecological integrity of these habitats.

The commercial fisheries along the Texas coast is an important industry. '

Commercial fish and shellfish landings during 1972 were i14.7 million pounds -

having a recorded dockside value of $85 millian (Reference 2-45); this value is

$15.2 million above the 1971 value. ,

The location of the significant commercial catch areas varies with the species.

Finfish and white shrimp are taken primarily from the shoreline to approximately 10 to 50 fathoms, depending on the season. Commercial crab fishing occurs principally within the bay creas. The oyster fishery is restricted to oyster reefs.

,t There are no known rare or endangered species which inhabit the escrine environs within the study region. .,

1 i SENSITIVE FAUNAL AREAS The following areas are considered ecologically sensitive due to their faunal component:

e Waterfowl Wintering Areas - The study area lies at the southem end of the central flyway for migrating water-fowl. The coastal waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the coastal marshes crd adjacent ri sands of Texas accom-l modate up to 45% of the migrating ducks in the flyway and 90% of the geese (Reference 2 -46). The deep marsh-rice belt, east of Galveston Bay supports up to 750,000 ducks and geese in mid winter. Fresh and brackish

! marshes offer better support than saline marshes. Good wetiond habitat extends northward from this area into

! east Texas, especially along the Neches and Trinity River l systems. From Galveston Bay through Matagorda Bay, the shallow marsh-rice belt provides good waterfowl habitat. The offshore islands of Galveston and Matagorda are leading waterfowl resting areas.

2-32 l TERA CORPORATION

e Rookeries - Many known bird rookeries occur in the study region, especially along the coast. The known sites were compiled from information obtained from the U. S.

Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife and the Texas Parks end Wildlife Department.

e Wildlife Refuges and Game Management Areas - Three federal wildlife refuges (Anahuoc, San Bernard, and Brazoria) and two state game management areas (Sheldon and J. D. Murphree) occu in the study region. Since the 1975 study two additional National Wildlife Refuges have been established along the Texas coast in the study area.

These include the McFaddin and Sea Rim National Wild-life Refuges in Jefferson County.

e Passes - All passes which connect boy areas with the open Gulf are judged environmentally sensitive. These areas provide access for all marine fauna using the boys and estuaries as breeding and nursery grounds.

ENVIRONMENTALLY SENSITIVE AREA - FLORA An Environmentally Sensitive Area Map - Flora, was prepared showing those areas of important species and ecological systems which are ecologically sensitive.

The region under consideration contains four of the ten ecologically distinct vegetation areas of Texas described by Gould (1969). These areas are:

e Piney Woods - This gently rolling to hilly forested land supports predominantly commercial timber species (lob-lolly, shortleaf, longleaf and slash pines) along with various hardwoods (e.g., ocks, hickory, maple). The pine re, resents a subclimax or fire disclimax currently being extensively exploited by the lumber industry. Posture and form lands are interspersed in the forests.

1 e Gulf Prairies and Marshes - The Coast Marsh is limited to narrow belts of low, wet marsh immediately odjacent to the coast. The climax vegetation of the Coastal Prairie is a tall grass prairie or post ook savannah. The area is mostly rangeland intersoersed with forms.

e Post Ook Savannah - This is a gently rolling savannah of blackjack and post ook over tall grass ~es. Most of the area is native or improved postures with occasional small forms.

2G l

l TERACORPORATON

l e Blockland Prairies - This is a climax grassland on gently rolling to level surfaces. Mesquite, post ook, and black-jack ook occur in some creas. The high fertility of the calcareous clays and gray acid sandy looms has resulted in most of the crea being cultivated.

RARE AND ENDANGERED FLORA 3

l Plants in the study region that are considered scarce and endangered to very rare and acutely endangered in Texas are listed by the Rare Plant Study Center l (Reference 2-47). Comprehensive range and locality information is not available for many of these species. Their presence or absence in particular areas must be determined by on-site surveys. There are no Federally listed threatened or endangered plant species in the study area.

SENSITIVE FLORA AREAS The following are ecologically sensitive due to their vegetation:

e Big Thicket - This is an extensive mixed mesic woodland l

sufficiently homogeneous in species comrsition to be ecologically distinct from odjacent woodlands. The extent of the Big Thicket forest type has been discussed by McLeod (Reference 2-48).

The ecological importance of the Big Thicket lies in its ecological diversity. Eight major plant associations have been identified within the Thicket (Reference 2-49).

Some of these are unique and very sensitive harboring species of plants with specialized, narrow habitat require-l ments. Especially sensitive are wetiond savannahs, bogs l and swamps which support rare and unusual plants such as sundews, pitcher plants and a variety of orchids. Virgin forest still exists in a few creas inaccessible to lumbering.

In these creos cypress, hickories, sweetgum and various oaks have grown to immense sizes, e Sam Houston National Forest - Part of the Som Houston National Forest (which includes o portion of the Big Thicket) occurs in the study region.

2-34 TERACORPORATION

e Coastal Prairie - The Coastal Prairie consists of two distinct types of prairie:

- L.issie Prairie - This is a large stretch of prime coastal prairie odjoining a beautiful wooded volley along the San Bernard River. Due to the increasing development of the few remaining tracts of virgin pro 7 tie and the concomitant destruction of their distinctive communities, such creas are considered ecologically sensitive.

- Sea Octs Prairie - The stretch of prairie along Matagordo Peninsula is one of few remaining examples of extensive, virgin stands of sea oats (Uniola paniculata). This species, not listed as endangered by the Rare Plant Study Center (Refer-ence 7 47), is considered rare by the Texas Organi-zatirr> fo- Endangered Species (Reference 2-44).

Sea oats grow only in a few areas along the mature dune ridges of the coort and at the present time, these dunes are being rapidly exploited for commer-ciel and/or recreational use; therefore, the habitat for this species is being destroyed.

e Mmgroves - Block mcrigroves (Avicennia oerminons) are found only along the coast in moist woods, along streams or logoons, in seepage creas or marshes, and along tidal shores. This species is most demanding in its habitat and has become established and con only survive in certain creos of coastal Texas. Like sea oats, it is listed as rare in Texas by the Texas Organization for Endangered Species (Reference 2 44).

e Solt-water Marshes - Solt-water marshes, while they contain no unique vegetation assembleges, are considered important and sensitive due to the fact they provids nursery grounds and habitat for many commercially and recreationally valuable aquatic fish and shellfish.

2.2.1.4 LAND USE EVALUATION CRITERI A There ore no widely accepted standards for land use. Although there are nationwide potterns of use that may be employed for screening sites, local preferences and values are the prime determinants of the " proper" pattern.

Table 2.2-4 provides criteria for the following land use factors:

2-35

TABLE 2.2-4 LAND USE EVALUATION CRITERIA Land Use Factors Areas to Avoid Arens to Select

1. Relation to exist- Areas where utility would conflict with existing Complionce with exist-ing or proposed or proposed plans, open space plans, transoorto- ing plan.

land use plans and lion plan, airport plan, regional housing plan.

policies.

2. Pre-emption of Areas of existing or potential public recreation Areas where compot-land uses existing (particularly orcos with exceptional qualities), ible land use could on site or planned Areas of historic or importont orchaeological enhance the area.

for site. sites. Areas where significant costs to relocate pre-empted land use would be required. In particular, regional screening should exclude y creas of existing public land.

M 3. Industrial, Military Areas nearby industrial, military and transpor- Areas where potential and Transportation totion facilities which may have potential occi- occidents from nearby Focilities. dents which could offect the safety of a nuclear facilities are of an power plant. In particular, regional screening occeptoble level as should exclude: determined by NRC (1) Areas near aircraf t prohibited, restricted, Regulatory Guide 4.7 warning and alert creas (e.g., intensive student "* I*'*"** 2- b jet training areas).

(2) Areas near airports having control zones extending upwards from the surface.

(3) Areas of shipping safety 'oirways and fair-way onchoroges.

C O

o O

Z

, . . a . _ . 1

e Land Use Plans or Policies Proposed alternative uses of some lands may render a site unsuitable for a nuclear power station. One general class of such lands is that land specified by a community as planned for other uses or as restricted to compatible uses vis-a-vis other lands (Reference 2-3).

e Pre-emption of Land Use Pre-emption of existing land use at the site itself may l cause significant impact if, for example, the land was being used for specialty crops or contains a small town.

Sites odjacent to some lands devoted to public use may be ,

considered unsuitable. Soch cases are most opt to crise in areas odjacent to natural resource oriented creas as opposed to recreational oriented creas (Reference 2-3).

e Industrial, Military and Transportation Focilities Potential occidents at present or projected nearby industrial, military and transportation facilities may render a site unsuitable (Reference 2-3). Certain types of transportation movement creos and transportation facill-ties should be avoided; these are listed in Table 2.2-4.

LAND USE PATTERNS A land use map was prepared showing the land use patterns throughout the study region. The land use was classified into the following categories:

I e Recreational or Park Areas l Existing and planned public and private recreational or

park creas were mapped. These areas were located using l references 2-50 to 2-58.

e Historic Sites l

Historic sites were mapped. These areas were located l

using references 2-50 to 2-53 and 2-59.

e Public Lands Existing and proposed public lands were mapped. Public lands include city, county, special authority, state and federally owned lands which are not classified in another i

2-37 TERACORPORATION l - _ . - - _ . _ _ _ _ . .- . .

category. For example, existing State Parks are state owned lands but are classified as " Recreational or Park Areas". These creas were located using references 2-50, 2-51, 2-56 and 2-57.

e Texas Travel Trails -,

The Texas Brazos, Forest and independence Trails were mapped. The trails were located using references 2-60 to 2-62.

. Lakes Existing and proposed lakes were mapped. The lakes were located using references 2-50 to 2-55 and 2-63 to 2-65.

e Shipping Safety Fairway and Anchorages Shipping safety fairways and fairway anchorages were mapped. These were located using references 2-66 to 2-68.

To define crecs where sites would conform to land use patterns, the following land use classifications were not designated acceptable condidate areas:

e Existing Areas of Recreational or Park Areas e Existing Public Lands f

e Shipping Safety Fairways

! e Fairway Anchorages l

AIRCRAFT FLIGHT ZONES in addition to the land use patterns map, an circraft flight zone map was prepored. This map included the following items:

e Airports Active civil and m; scry airports were mapped.

1 2-38 TERACORPORATION

e Restricted Areas and Air Control Zones Areas which are designated prohibited, restricted, worn-ing, danger, ciert or intensive student jet training areas were mapped. Areas around airports which are designated control zones extending upwards from the surface were

• mapped.

e Air Corridors Low altitude "Vic tor" airways were mapped and l identified.

References 2-69 to 2-71 were used to locate the preceding areas.

In order to comply with NRC Regulatory Guide 4.7 (Reference 2-3) the areas classified as Restricted Areas and Air Control Zones were excluded from acceptable condidate arcos.

2.2.1.5 DEMOGRAPHY EVALUATION CRITERI A A major consideration in the selection of a nuclear power plont site is the potential risk to the public associated with locating such a facility near heavily populated areas. NRC regulations and guidelines do not provide specific criteria for site selection for population distribution. According to the regulations, creas of low population density are preferred for nuclear power station sites and a minimum exclusion distance of 0.4 mile and a distance of 3 miles to the outer boundary of the low population zone is usually odequate (Reference 2-3).

At the time of our 1975 study there were no official regulations or guidelines which specify detailed procedures for site suitability onelysis with respect to population distribution chorocteristics. Consequently, we developed our own criterio, shown in Table 2.2-5, based on the following:

2-39 TERACORPORATON

TABLE 2.2-5 POPULATION CRITERIA FOR USE IN SITE SELECTION .,

l. Cumulative population versus distance from the reactor should not exceed:

0- 5 miles s 30,000 persons 0-20 miles s 500,000 persons 0-40 miles s 2,000,000 persons

2. Local population densities should not exceed 220 persons per square mile within 2 miles of the reactors.

3. The " exclusion zone" distance should be greater than 0.5 miles.

2-40 TERACORPORATION

e NRC Regulations 10 CFR 20,50,51 and 100 and proposed Appendix I to Part 50 (References 2-72 to 2-76).

l e Current practice for licensing nuclear power plants. I e Pending NRC proposals.

The sites selected have subsequently been reviewed against NUREG-0625 based on reconnisance level information used in this evoluotion, and each of the sites selected complies with the population density limits of NUREG-0625.

DEMOGRAPHIC SCREENING A Demogmphy Map was prepared showing the areas which were excluded from being candidate areas. The criteria used in this determination are listed in Table 2.2-5. Population cbta was obtained from references 2-77 to 2-85. These data were converted to population densities for the following: year of most recent census, time of proposed plant start up and end of life of plant, year 2025. The highest population projections including specific densities for town and cities were mapped on on overlay consisting of I x 1 mile grid squares. These population projections were then used to produce exclusion areas based on the criteria shown in Table 2.2-5. These areas were then used to produce a Demography Map, which provides the acceptable and not acceptab!e areas based on the demographic criteria.

This methodology provides a conservative approach for determining areas of low populatien distribution und minimizes site suitability licensing problems with respect to demography.

2.2.1.6 METEOROLOGY EVALUATION CRITERIA 1

Site meteorology is a site suitebility characteristic principally important to the calculation of radiation doses resulting from the release of fission products as o I consequence of a postulated accident and the establishment of exclusion area 1

i i

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2-41 l

l TERACORPORATION

boundaries, low population zone boundaries, and distance to a population center (Reference 2-3). Accordingly, this chorocteristic is screened for in the demo-4 graphy section. Other meteorology characteristics which should be considered are described below:

e Atmospheric Dispersion Forecasted air pollution stagnation regions and areas where low wind speeds and low mixing heights occur should be avoided.

Meteorologic data should be compared with the NRC criteria. In most cases, it is possible to use the NRC criteria'as worst case criteria, but this possibility must be confirmed.

e Atmospheric Extremes The potential effects of atmospheric extremes (for example, tornadoes and exceptional icing conditions) on the safety-related structures of a nuclear station must be considered; however, the atmospheric extremes that may occur at a site are not critical in determining the suitability of a site because safety-related structures, systems and components con be designed to withstand atmospheric extremes (Reference 2-3). The NRC now requires nuclear power plants in Texas to be designed for a tornado of 290 mph rotational speed and 70 mph translational velocity (Reference 2-86). Because all of Texas is in Tornado Region 1, this criteria remains constant for all areas that were considered during the regional screening.

e Fogging and !cing Areas where the prevailing atmospheric conditions are less favorable for the dissipation of visible water droplet plumes (temperatore low and/or relative humidity high) and where the plume may result in fog formation over transportation corridors should be carefully investigated during the site selection process.

METEOROLOGY SCREENING A Meteorology Map was prepared showing regional meteorological characteris-tics of ventilation and diffusion.

2-42 TERACORPORATION

Atmospheric diffusion factors are used in determining the effects of radioactive effluents both for postulated occidents and from routine releases in gaseous effluents. Ventilation is orie of the two basic parameters used to define diffusion climatology. Ventilation in the study region is generally chorocterized as good.

The Meteorology mop showed ventilation in terms of:

e Direction of prevailing wind e Mean wind speed e Areas where local winds are modified by topography The second basic parameter in evaluating diffusion is atmospheric stability. The frequency of temperature inversions is a measure of this effect. The study region has a relative low frequency of temperature inversions indicating good diffusion chorocteristics. Meteorological data were obtained from references 2-87 to 2-89. On the map the two parameters, ventilation ord stability, were combined to determine diffusion oreos. These arcos are classified as arcos where:

e Diffusion is good on ridges and poor in valleys e Diffusion is adequate e Diffusion is good in general, throughout the whole study region the meteorology is better than that required to meet the NRC requirements of references 2-90 and 2-91.

2.2.1.7 TRANSPORTATION l

EVALUATION CRITERI A The nuclear power plant is a heavy construction operation involving the installation of several particularly massive components. Moreover, the plant is likely to be situated at a remote location where transport fncilities are generally locking. '#ith respect to the delivery of the large components, core should be 2-43 TERACORPORATION

taken to minimize environmental damage. While the major impact of providing new transportation facilities may be economic, careful consideration of the envionmental impact of delivery of the construction materials, equipment and major reactor components must be considered. The site crea should preferably be convenient to either bodies of water or rail or road corridors of sufficient width and load-corrying capacity to handle the equipment.

TRANSPORTATION SCREENING A trcnsportation mcp was prepared showing the following:

e United States, interstate and Texas State Highways e Railroads e Navigable Waterways and Berge Canals Transportation information was obtained from references 2-50, 2-52, 2-54, 2-56, 2-58 and 2-92. Transportation considerations identified during the regional screening process were utilized during the condidate creas evaluation to develop the economic and associated environmental impact of siting a nuclear power plant at a porticular location.

2.2.I.8 GENERATION STATION AND TRANSMISSION LINES A Generating Stations and Transmission Lines Map was prepared showing the following:

e Houston Lighting & Power Company generating stations e Other generating stations e Houston Lighting & Power Company proposed generating stations e Substations e Existing 345 kV,135 kV and 69 kV transmission lines e Proposed 345 kV,135 kV and 69 kV transmission lines 2-44 TERA CORPORATION

The information above was obtained from references 2-93 to 2-95.

1 This information was considered during the regional screening processing with the advance knowledge that both economic and environmental impoet of transmission line routes con be reduced by locating the power plant close to the food center and near existing transmission line corridors.

2.2.l.9 PREVIOUSLY STUDIED POWER PLANT SITES A map was prepared showing the power plant sites previously studied by Houston Lighting & Power. This map showed:

o Previously studied nuclear power sites e Previously studied nuclear plant sites rejected on initial screening e Previously studied lignite plant sites.

Where appropriate, information on these previously studied sites was utilized in the regional screening process.

l l

l 2.3 CANDIDATE AREA DESIGNAY;CN The Regional Screening portion of the ;975 Siting Study was accomplished by performing the following tasks:

e Establish Site Study Region e Review Existing Reports e Collect Published Information e Correlate and Verify Information Sources e Conduct the Regional Screening As a result of this screening, various licensable areas were identified and designated as condidate creos.

2-45 l TERACORPORATION

The candidate creas, which are envelopes of licensable areas, were identified by the application of primarily the following screening criteria:

i e Demography Areas were excluded if: 'l (I) Cumulative population versus distance exceeded:

0 - 5 miles a 30,000 persons 3 0 - 20 2 500,000 persons 0 - 40 2 2,000,000 persons .

(2) Local population densities exceed 220 persons per ,

square mile within 2 miles of the reactor. ,

e Land Use Areas were excluded if they were within:

Areas of existing public lands (e.g., National Parks, (1)

State Parks, etc.) ,

(2) Areas of aircraf t prohibited, restricted, warning and alert areas (e.g., intensive student jet training areas)

(3) Areas of airports having control zones extending upwards from the surface (4) Areas of shipping safety fairways and fairway anchorages l e Hydrology - Aquifer Areas were excluded if they were classified as unaccept-l able because:

(1) The area directly overlaid a usable aquifer, with no

! significant natural barrier to downward seepage from the ground surface.

l l (2) The area was directly upstream of the recharge intake area aquifer systems (3) The area was subject to flooding which cannot be protected by practical flood protection methods 2-46 TERACORPORATION l

t

I 1

1 e Hydrology - Water Availability Areas were excluded if they were classified as unaccept-able because the area was within a water basin where the inland water available was less than 36,000 acre-feet per year.

A Candidate Area Map was prepared to show the candidate area resulting from the Phase i Regional Screening process. Out of the initial 24,000 square mile study region, a candidate area of approximately 4,500 square miles remained of ter regional screening.

1 l

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l TERACORPORATION l

l

3.0 CAtolDATE SITE EVALUATION

3.1 INTRODUCTION

Af ter completion of the regional screening and selection of condidate areas within which potential sites are to be located, o scorch was performed to select condidate sites which were judged to be potentially licensable and capable of

! development as a site for a nuclear power plant. In this search, the following site selection evoluotion factors were considered:

e Geology and Seismology e Meteorology Hydrology e

e Ecology e Demography e Land Use i e Aesthetics I

e Transportation 1

i e Economics This report identifies seven salt-water cooling sites and one inland fresh-water t

site.

l Each of the identified sites was then reviewed with respect to the engineering and economic evaluations, environmental factors and licensing considerations listed above. Site economic rankings were developed and sensitivity analyses on various factors were performed. The site dato and results of these analyses are discussed in this section.

3.2 METHODOLOGY Candidate site evaluation was accomplished by performing the following tasks:

l 3-1

' TERACORPORATION

COLLECTION OF SITE SPECIFIC CANDIDATE AREA INFORMATION Data and information collected during the regional screening phase which described the condidate creas were reviewed and, where oppropriate, additional information was collected to further refine the evoluotion.

CANDIDATE AREA EVALUATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF CANDIDATE SITES The condidate creas were evaluated to identify potential candidate sites. The condidate site identification was initiated by a preliminary search of U.S.G.S.

Quadrangle maps for sites within selected condidate creas. The following criteria were used in selecting the condidate sites:

e Geology and Seismology e Meteorology e Hydrology e Ecology e Demography -

e Lund Use e Aesthetics e Transportation e Economics These criteria are essentially the some as those used to evaluate and select the candidate creas, except that they were researched in greater detail.

A summary of the eight sites evaluated in this report is provided in Toble 3.2-1 and their location is shown in Figure 3.2-1. Each of the eight sites is described in Section 3.4.

l PERFORMANCE OF A COST EFFECTIVENESS COMPARISON OF CANDIDATE SITES A cost effectiveness comparison of condidate sites was conducted. This comparison included engineering and economic evaluations, environmental factors and licensing considerations. The appropriate factors from the NRC 3-2 TERACORPORATION

t TABLE 3.21

$UMMARY SITE DESCRIPTIONS Neorest Type of Heat Site County Communities Dissipotion System Au-l Austin Four mi. NW of Wallis; Eight Cooling Pond mi. SE of Seoir Forty-five mi. W of Houston Bz-1 Bromorio Fif teen mi. E of Freeport: Once Treough Twenty-five mi. SW of Goiveston; Fif ty mi. SSE of Houston Ch- l Chambers Five mi. NW of Winnie; Ten mi. 5 of Cooli.g Pond Nome; Fif ty-seven mi. E. of Houston Je-2 Jefferson Twenty-seven mi. SW of Port Arthur Cooling Pond Nine mi. E of High Island; Sixty-seven mi. E of Houston Je-3 Jef f erson ond Five mi. N of High Island, TNrteen mi. Cooling Pond Chambe s 5 of Winnie; Sixty mi. E. of Houston Mo-l Motogordo Two mi. SE of Sorgeont TNrteen mi. Cooling Pond 5 of Sweeney: Sixty-five mi. SW of Houston Mo-2 Motogordo Seven mi. W of Sorgeet Fif teen mi. Cooling Pond I

Sw of Boy City; Seventy mi. SW of Houston Mo-3 Motogorda Nine mi. T of Motogordo; TNrteen Cooling Pond 5 of Roy City; Seventy-three mi. SW of Houston 1

l 1

3-3 IT;RACORPORATION l

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Location Map of Candidate Site; 3-4 h TERA CO* v4 t A

Regulatory Guide 4.2 (Reference 3-1) cost effectiveness check lists were incorporated into the comparison. The engineering and economic comparison was conducted utilizing TERA's computerized Economic Comparison Model. The model determines monetary cost differences for installation and operation of generating units at the potential sites. The economic comparison is described in Section 3.3.1 and the economic ranking is provided in Section 3.4.2. The economic, environmental and licensing factors are tabulated and compared in Section 3.5.

3.3 CANDIDATE SITE EVALUATION FACTORS The primary factors used in the evoluotion of condidate sites were engineering and economic evoluotions, environmental factors and licensing considerations. A description of each of these factors crid the assumptions that were used are presented below.

3.3.1 ENGINEERING AND ECONOMIC EVALUATION Condidate sites were compared by determining the difference in the differential unit cost (per kilowatt hour) of energy delivered to the existing grid for specified plant output. The major cost differences between condidate sites con be determined by combining the cost elements for the heat dissipation system, transmission system, water transport systems (mcke-up and blowdown), trans-portation facilities and the site development in a single present value os of the date of operation. By annualizing this sum in a stream of payments proportional to the delivered output, it is possible to determine the necessary cost recovery rate. Costs considered include acquisition, construction and operating outleys for those plant site elements considered.

Cost categories included in the evoluotion were:

e Capital Investments e Fixed Rote Annual Costs e Annual Costs of Generation e Electrical Losses 3-5 TERA CORPORATION

The cost sources included:

e Basic Plant Parameters e Heat Dissipation System o Water Transport System e Transmission System e Transportation Facilities and Site Development 3.3.2 ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS Each of the candidate sites was reviewed from an environmental standpoint.

This review was conducted using a combination of aerial reconnaissance, preliminary field surveys and literature reviews. The criteria used for each of the environmental factors were essentially the some as those used for the regional screening except more detail was sought.

These factors included uniqueness, sensitivity, successional status and biotic diversity of the sites and presence of breeding or feeding grounds for important migrating species. Any environmental problems identified are described as part of the environmental considerations presented in the site descriptions in Section 3.4.

3.3.3 LICENSING CONSIDERATIONS in addition to the economic and the environmental screening, the potential sites were reviewed with respect to current licensing regulations and trends. The i criteria used is consistent with the requirements of 10 CFR 50,10 CFR 51,10 1

CFR 100, NRC Regulatory Guide 4.2 and 4.7 (References 3-2, 3-3, 3-4, 3- 1, and 3-5 respectively).

To minimize possible licensing problems the following procedure was used in locating the plant area.

3-6 TERACORIORATION i

PROXIMITY TO TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES To determine the acceptable distance from o nuclear power plant to a trans-portation route over which explosive material (not including gases) may be corried, the criteria presented in Table 3.3-1 were employed. The criteria correlates the ability to withstand the possible effects of explosions occurring on nearley transportation routes relative to the effects of the design basis tornado (Reference 3-6). To comply with these criteria the plant areas were located at distances greater than those listed in Table 3.3-1.

PROXIMITY TO GEOLOGY FEATURES -

Site maps were made for each of the potential sites using U.S.G.S. Quadrangle maps. The site maps show the following geology features:

e Oil or aos wells Oil and gas field locations were obtained from subsurface structural contour maps of the Geomop Company, a petroleum industry service company. These maps show the locations of proposed, producing and abandoned oil and gas wells.

e Surface linears and faults Surface fault locations for sites in the northwestern part of the study area were token from Barnes (References 3-7 and 3-8).

The locations of lineers and surface faults near Houston are from Fisher and others (Reference 3-9) and a prepublication map by Fisher and others (Reference 3-10).

! e Surface projections of subsurface faults The projection of subsurface faults to the surface was made by l

using a standard cross-section profile for Gulf Coast growth

! faults and determining the horizontal offset between the sub-surface and surface traces. The fault was then reptotted in the offset position parallel to its subsurface trace. The delineation I of subsurface faults is based on subsurface structural contour I maps of the Texas Coastal Plain published by the Geomop l Company. These subsurface maps are constructed on two subsurface datums which differ from place to place.

l l To determine the acceptable distance from a power plant area to the above geologic features the following criteria were employed:

3-7 TERACORPORATION _

TABLE 3.3-I MNA%JM DISTANCE FROM PLANT AREA TO TRANSPORTATK)N ROUTES (REFERENCE 3-5) -

Hicpwey ' I,500 feet 2

Reilroed 3,000 feet Ncvig::ble Wcterwey 9,000 feet I

Besed on e 43,000 lb trucklood shipment of TNT 2

Besed on c 396,000 lb three box ccr shipment of TRIT 3

Besed on a 10,000,000 lb shiplood of TNT 3-8 .

TERA CCQcCRATCN

e Oil and cas wells No octiw oil or gas wells were allowed within the plant area.

Where possible cooling ponds were not located over active oil or or gas wells.

e Surface lineers, faults and projections of subsurface faults A minimum distance of i100 feet was emplo>ed to separate the power plant creo from surface lineers, faults or projections of subsurface faults. The l100 ft. separation is twice the possible error inherent in the subsurface projection technique. Cooling pond and pond embankment locations and alignment were based I

on literat te information and on-site investigations would be required to wrify or modify cooling pond embankment align-ment.

3.4 PRESENTATION OF SITE DATA 3.4.1

SUMMARY

DESCRIPTION Af ter selection of the candidate regions and identification of potential condidate sites were completed, a combination of overflights, preliminary field investiga-tions, literature reviews and economic analyses were used to dewlop the information presented in this section. The sites and heat dissipation systems used in the evaluations were as follows:

Type of Heat Site Number Dissipation System Au-l Cooling Pond (Allens Creek) using fresh water Bz-l Once Through using salt water l

I Ch-l Cooling Pond using salt water

! J e-2 Cooling Pond using salt water J e-3 Cooling Pond using salt water Ma-1 Cooling Pond using salt water 3-9 TERACORPORATION

1 1

l Type of Heat Site Number Dissipation System Ma-2 Cooling Pond using salt water Ma-3 Cooling Pond using salt water The Au-l site (Allens Creek) was considered on existing two unit site at the time TERA did the 1975 study; therefore, it was considered as an existing site at which two additional units could be added. For the coastal site comparison report, TERA re-evaluated the Allens Creek site as a new site which did not contain two existing units. Thus, the Allens Creek site was rated on the same rating scale as the seven coastal sites to ensure that there was no bias in comparing the Allens Creek site to these sites. This format was necessarily more limited than the extensive information provided in the environmental report and safety evaluation report for the Allens Creek project. Therefore, this comparison is consistent with but not a substitute for the more detailed information developed in the prime site investigational phase and presented in the applicant's environmental and safety repor's.

The BZ-1 site in Brazoria County, which is 25 miles southwest of Galveston, was evaluated in January 1979, (Reference 1-2) in response to questions from the NRC Staff in connection with the Staff's updated alternative sites evaluation.

Both HL&P and the Staff had previously rejected the San Jacinto Basin on the i basis o? a regional screening. However, under the NRC's revised criteria, it was determined that it was necessary to identify a specific site in this region. The Brazoria County site was identified from the sites catalogued in the 1975 study, and was as good as could be identified under our criteria.

3.4.2 SITE ECONOMIC RANKING The condidate sites were evolvated using the engineering and economic factors

! discussed in the previous sections. The site dependent variables associated with 3-10 TERACORPORATION

the heat dissipation system, transmission system, water tronsport system, transportation facilities and site development were developed for each of the condidate sites. These factors were utilized in the computerized economic model and on economic ranking developed. The results of the site economic ranking are presented in Table 3.4-l. The mills / kwhr presented are the differen-tiol cost from the base or lowest cost site.

3.4.3 SITE DATA Each of the condidate sites was investigated in detail through use of the regional screening and site selection factors. Site summaries describing these factors and their significance to each site are provided in this section. The summaries include the following information:

e Type, size and location of site e Geology and seismology e Meteorology e Hydrology e Ecology e Demography l

1 e Land Use e Aesthetics e Transportation All significant considerations are identified and discussed in the appropriate I

section.

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3-11 h TERACORPORATION

TABLE 3.4-1 ECONOMIC RAPEING Differential Cost Order Site Number (mills / kwhr) l l

! Awl Bee 2 Mo-3 .104 3 Bz-l .138 4 Mo- 1 .145 5 Ch- 1 .160 6 Je-3 .213 7 Mo-2 .217 8 Je-2 .257 3-12 TERA CORPORATICN

SITE AU-l (ALLENS CREEK)

Type: Cooling Pond Site Using Fresh Water Size: The cooling pond will inundate approximately 5120 acres. The site consists of 11 152 acres of land and includes those areas to be the restricted area the cooling pond, and occupied adjacent byowned areas th,e bystation' Houston Lighting & P,ower Company.

Location: The Au-l site is located in Austin county approximately 4 miles northwest of Wallis, 7 miles south-southeast of Sealy, and 45 miles west of the center of Houston.

Factors: The summary findings from application of the regional environmental protection considerations listed below are discussed on the following Pages.

Regional Environmental Protection Considerations Geology and Seismology Meteorology Hydrology Ecology Demography Land Use Aesthetics Transportation i

i AU-l-1 TERACORPORATION 1

Ceology and Seismology e Geologic Setting Age: Pleistocene Surficial Sediment Assemblage: Fluviol-deltoic System e Surface Meterial Types The site is predominately covered by river alluvium, floodplain and back-swamp deposits, and exposed sands, silty sands or silts. Near the Brazos River the olluvium is 120 feet thick and thins moving across the site location. Floodplain and backswamp deposits occur within the cooling pond location consisting of red, brown, and gray clay and clayey silts with occasional lenti-cular sand beds. The upper clay sequence is underlain by fine to coarse gravelly sond.

e Underlying Depcs!ts Pleistocene: Beaumont Cloy Formation The Beaumont Clay Formation consists primarily of Pleistocene age detto plain deposits; principally eclareous red, brown or yellow clay that wea-thers bluish-gray or black; with logs, pect, fossil plants and some shells; represents interdistributary mods, cbondoned channel-fill muds, fluvial overbank muds, and locally, boy, rnorsh, logoon and backswamp muds.

These deposits are characterized by low permecbility, high water-holding capacity, high compressibility, high to very high shrink-swell potential, poor drainage, low shear strength and high plasticity. The clays are inte.-bedded with highly lenticular beds of gray to bluish-gray sandy clay, silt, and very find-grained to medium grained sand representing levee, crevasse spicy, distributary and locally, meanderbeit sand. These deposits exhibit low to moderate permeability, high to moderate, water-holding capacity, moderate compressibility, moderate to low shrink-swell poten-tial, moderate drainage, moderate to high shear strength and low plosti-city. Meanderbelt sand may be under-consol* dated and subject to liquifica-tion.

Pleistocene: Montogomery Forrnation immediately underlying the Beaumont Formation is the Montgomery For-motion consisting primarily of a light brown sand. The sand is fine- to medium-grained near the top of the formation and grades coarser with depth; intervals of coarse sand and gravelly sands are common in the lower half of the formation. Interbedded with the sands are occasional red-brown and gray clay and silt beds. Several water-bearing and sand units exist within the Montgomery Formation. The formation is 70 to 100 feet thick at the plant site and the sands are generally dense to very dense.

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Plioceneo: Goliad Formation These aforementioned Pleistocene formations unconformably overlie the Pliocene Goliad Formation. The Gollod Formation consist of interbedded light gray to l'aht i brown sandstone, mudstone, fine to coarse sands and sandy clays. The sandstones occur as poorly- to well-cemented, thin-bedded, calcareous, fine- to coarse-grained deposits, with thin sand and clay seams. Some sand beds are water-bearing. The Goliad Formation is 70 to 100 feet thick in the site creo. The clays are stiff to hard and the sands are dense to very dense.

Miocene: Fleming Formation The Fleming Formation is present below the Goliad Formation. The upper portions of this unit consist of dark red-brown silty clay, red-brown and and interbedded sandstone ord sand. The clays and sands are gray claydense to very dense, respectively.

hard and e Geologic Hazards Salt Domes The areas of potential salt dome activity closest to the site are the San Felipe Dome, approximately eight miles northwest, and Orchard Dome, approximately 12 miles southeast.

Seismicity The closest reported earthquake epicenters to the site in historic time was:

Lat. Long. Intensity Distance Date (N) (W) (MM) Location (Mr.)

I/7/56 29.300 94.800 MM IV Galveston Island 76 Note that three earthquakes of intensity 1, reported at Hobby Airport in Houston, Texas, in June 1969, have been recorded as possible sonic booms.

The unnamed events in 1910 north of Sealy, Texas, and the Anderson event in 1914 near Sealy, Texas, have not been substantiated by literature survey.

Surface Faults, Linears and Subsurface "Foult" Projections Several literature linears are in the vicinity of the Au-l site area with the closest linear passing .6 miles south of the plant. Chapter 2 of the Allens i

Creek PSAR demonstrates that these linears have no correlation to subsurface faults and are of no geological significance.

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e Topography. Soil Stability and Construction Suitability

, The plant site is flat topographically and bounded on the east by the Brazos - '

River. The crea consists primarily of floodplain and alluvium deposits.

The soil generally has low permeability, high shrink-swell potential and low to moderate bearing capacity. _

e Subsidence There has been some regional land subsidence attributed to extraction of fluids by pumping near the coast; however, the influence of pumping has been limited to that general crea and measurable surface subsidence has not been reported within 10 miles of the plant site. Chapter 2 of the Allens Creek PSAR shows that there is no potential for subsidence which would offect the plant.

e Aquifers This site is located on a "occeptable" aquifer zone.

Meteorology e Atmospheric Dispersion Evaluation of preliminary information including wind speed, atmospheric stability and topography indicates that the short-term diffusion chorocter-istics of the site are adequate, and that the good annual overage diffusion characteristics exist. There ore no significant topographic restrictions to dispersion in the site vicinity. Overall, diffusion chorocteristics are such that additional engineering features designed to limit fission product release should not be required.

e Tornado and Extreme Winds All of the sites under consideration lie within Design Basis Tornado Region 1.

General Design Criteria 2, " Design Basis for Protection Against Natural Phenomena" of Appendix A to 10 CFR S0, " Licensing of Production Facility", requires that structure, systems and com-

. ponents important to safety be designed to withstand the effects of l natural phenomeno such as tornadoes without loss of copobility of i their safety functions. A design basis tornado, acceptable to the l Regulatory Staff, has been specified in Regulatory Guide 1.76. The requirements are shown in Tcble I on the following page.

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TABLEI DESIGN BASIS TORNADO CHARACTERISTICS (from Regulatory Guide 1.76)

Region

, I 11 Ill Maximum Wind Speed (mph) 360 300 240 Rotational Speed (mph) 290 240 190 Translational Speed (mph)

Maximum 70 60 50 b

Minimum 5 5 5 Radius of Maximum Rotational Speed (ft) 150 150 150 Pressure Drop (psi) 3.0 2.25 1.5 Rote of Pressure Drop (psi /sec) 2.0 1.2 0.6 The maximum wind speed is the sum of the rotational speed component and the maximum translational speed component.

b The minimum translational speed, which allows maximum transit time of the tornado across exposed plant features, is to be used whenever low travel speeds (moximum transit time) are a limiting factor in design of the ultimate heat sink. The u!timate beat sink is that complex of water sources, including ossociated retain ng structures, and any canals or conduits connecting the sources with, but not including, the intoke struc-tures of nuclear reactor units. Regulatory Guide 1.27 (Sofety Guide 27),

" Ultimate Heat Sink," describes a basis that rooy be t; sed to implement General Design Criterion 44 of Appendix A to 10 CFR Part 50 with regard to the ultimate heat sink.

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, l e Foggina and Icing Cooling system foggingwind andcondi generally icing,tions. Littleoccurs icing iswith cold, moist anticipated air of the under light to moderate l site since winters are generally quite mild. On the very conservative assumption that ground level cooling system-related fogs may occur up to 10 miles from the system, some occasional fog could offect local roads (FM 1093 and 1458) Texas Highways 60 and 36, Interstate 10, and the towra of Sealy, Wallis, Orchard, Chesterville and Simonton. --

e Wind Characteristics Surface wind directions at Houston (Hobby Airport) predominately are from the south-southeast, which is generally true also for the Sdividual months.

The wind directions at the site are likely to have o slightly morrt south-southeast to southerly orientation, since they are further inland from the Gulf of Mexico. No major population center is within 30 maes downwind of the site under the prevailing wind directions. The town of Sealy is about 7 miles north-northwest of the site on the streamline of the pre railing wind.

The annual overage wind speed is Il.6 miles per hour at Houston Hobby and is estimated to be about ll mph at the site.

Hydrology

. Availability of Cooling Water Water necessory to meet the makeup requirements for a 2,600 MWe nuclear e,tation (LWR) would be purchased from the Brazos River Authori-ty.

For the Au-l site, the required freshwater for use os cooling pond makeup and blowdown will be pumped 4,000 feet to and from the Brazos River.

e Water Quality The quality of the cooling water available at the Au-l site should be acceptable. The coo!ho system will use freshwater from, and discharge to, the Brazos River.

1 e Flood Protection The safety-related features of the plant and in fact the entire plant, will be protected against the probable maximum flood and against the failure of upstream dams by siting above the flood plain.

i AU-l-6 TERACORPORATION

Ecology e Environmentally Sensitive Considerations Flora The site lies in the transitional zone between the Post Oak Savannah and the Gulf Prairie at the upper end of the coastal plain. Due to present land use, much of the floro has been disturbed or eliminated. Vegetation within the crea is highly diverse and is no longer representative of the former climax vegetation. No environmentally sensitive species are expected to occur on site.

Founo The site crea is characteristic of the region supporting several mammal and bird species. Aquatic habitats exist in the Brazos River and sur-rounding tributaries. The river is considered a poor pruiucer by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Although it is unlikely that any known threatened or endangered animal species reside on the site, it is possible that several sensitive species recognized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department or the Texas Organiza-tion for Endangered Species may frequent the site area Chapter 2 of the Allens Creek environmental report demonstrates that there are no sensi-tive species on the site.

Demography The plant site falls outside of the exclusion areas defined by the demographic criteria provided below.

e Cumulative population versus distance from the reactor will not exceed:

0 - 5 miles 3 30,000 persons j

0 - 20 miles 1 500,000 persons 0 - 40 miles 5 ,000,000 2 persons e Local population densities should not exceed 220 persons per square miles l

within two miles of the reactor.

l e The exclusion zone distance from the reactor to the site boundary should l be greater than or equal to that calculated for the specific reactor type and size an in any event should be greater than 0.5 miles, I

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Land Use --

e Existing Land Use Most of the site area consists of cropland and improved posture and is expected to remain predominantly agricultural in the future. A few residences are located within the proposed site boundaries.

e Airspace The site lies outside of circraf t, prohibited, restricted, warning and alert areas, and airport control zones. ..

e Mineral Reserves No known mineral reserves are believed to exist within the plant site area.

e Oil and Gas Fields No known or developed oil and gas fields are believed to exist within the plant site area. One underground natural gas pipeline located in the cooling pond area will have to be relocated.

e Archeolooical & Historical Sites No archeological or historical sites as listed in or considered for the National Register of Historic Places or the National Register of Natural Landmarks exist within the projected site boundaries.

e Recreational Sites No recreation areas are located within the site area. Several small parks are located in Sealy and Wallis and the Stephen F. Austin State Park is located approximately 10 miles north. -

e Proposed Land Use Plans The proposed site area does not conflict with any known land use plans.

Aesthetics Local vegetation would partially screen the plant complex, but because of the topography of the site area, portions of the reactor building complex and transmission lines will be visible from Texas Highway 36, FM 1093 and 14S8, and the community of Wallis.

e Noise The noise created by construction and operation of the facility is not expected to cause undue impact in the site area.

AU-l-8 TERA CORPORATION

Transportation e Motor Corrier Service and Access The Au-l could be served by corriers operating over Texas Highway 36, which is located one mile west of the site.

e Railroad Service ar.d Access The Au-l site could be served by a railroad spur extending from o Atchison, Topeko and Santa Fe Railroad I mile west of the site.

l e Roads and Highways l

The site is located I mile east of Texas Highway 36, which provides good north-south access and connects with Interstate 10 seven miles north and with U.S. Highway 90A approximately 20 miles southeast of the site.

e Waterways The Au-l site is fond-locked. The Brazo's River is not navigable due to inadequate channel depths, seasonal nature of flow and impaireo vertical bridge clearances and other stream obstructions.

9 TERACORPORATION I 1

SITE BZ-1 ,

Type: Once Through Cooling Site Using Salt Water l Size: The total land area for the site will be somewhat dependent on the parcel size but should be about 640 acres.

Location: The Bz-l site is located on Follets Island in Brazoria County approximately 2h miles southwest of the near abutment of the San, Luis Pass bridge, 50 miles south-southeast of the center of Houston, 25 miles southwest of Galveston and 15 miles northeast of Freeport, Texas.

Factors: The summary findings from application of the regional environmental protection considerations listed below are discussed on the following pages.

Regional Environmental Protection Considerations Geology and Seismology Meteorology Hydrology Ecology Demography Land Use Aesthetics Transportotion l

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Geology and Seismology e Geologic Setting Age: Modern Holocene -

Surficial Sediment Assemblage: Barrier-Strandplain-Chenier System e Surface Material Types The site is predominantly coastal marsh located on the back side of a barrier island. During northers some shells may be washed into the marsh and narrow, discontinuous beaches develope. Except for these beaches, sediments underlying the marshes become coarser or sandier from the boy margin to the higher parts of the marsh. Underlying sediments of low marshes are generally dark gray mud or muddy sand, intensely burrowed by worms, crustaceans, and mollusks, and mottled by penetration of roots.

Sediments underlying higher marshes are mud, muddy sand, or locally may be dominantly sand. Sediments of high marsh are reworked by plant roots and fiddler crabs. Surface coverings generally include the Mustang-Galveston association characterized by coastal flat and coastal terrace soils with gray, neutral, sandy surfaces with white to gray, neutral to alkaline, sandy subsoils that are rapidly to very slowly permeable.

e Underlying Deposits Pleistocene: Beaumont Clay Formation Pleistocene age delto plain deposits; principally calcareous red, brown, or yellow clay that weathers bluish-gray or block; with logs, pect, fossil plants and some shells; represents interdistri-butary muds, abandoned channel-fill muds, fluvial overbank muds, and locally, bay, marsh, lagoon and backswamp muds.

These deposits are chcracterized by low permeability, high water-holding capacity, high compressibility, high to very high shrink-swell potential, poor drainage, low shear strength and high plasticity. The clays are interbedded with highly lenticular beds of gray to bluish-gray sandy clay, silt, and very fine-grained to medium-grained sand representing levee, crevasse splay, distributary and, locally, meanderbeit sand. These deposits exhibit low to moderate permeability, high to moderate water-holding capacity, moderate compressibility, moderate to low shrink-swell potential, moderate drainage, moderate to high : hear strength and low plasticity. Meander-belt sand may be under-consolidated and subject to liquifico-tion.

Pleistocene: Lissie Formation Alternating beds of fine to coarse gray sand and thin lenses of fine gravel interbedded with gray, brown, blue and red cloyey sand and sandy clay representing fine-grained meanderbeit sands, levee, crevasse splay, and distributary sands, and flood-basin mud over meanderbelt sand. Units are typically lenti-BZ-l-2 TERACORPORATION

I cular, but a few thicker clay strata rnay be traced over county-sized creas. These sands exhibit moderate to high permeability, moderate to good drainage, low shrink-swell potential, high shear strength and low plasticity. Some sands may be under- ,

compacted and subject to liquification. The sandy clays exhibit  !

moderate permeability, moderate drainage, moderate to high l shear strength, and moderate to low shrink-swell potential. A few thicker clays have high water-holding capacity, high com-pressibility, high to very high shrink-swell potential, poor l drainage, low shear strength and high plasticity.

e Geologic Hazards Scit Domes The site is located in on area of salt dome influence in the subsurface and is therefore located outside the occeptable candidate crea. The center of the nearest identified salt done is Hoskins Mound, located approximately eight miles to the northwest.

Seismicity The closest reported earthquake epicenters to the site in historic time was:

Lat. Long. Intensity Distance Date (N) (W) (MM) Location (MI.)

I/7/S6 29.300 94.800 MM IV Galveston island 76 Erosion Potential The bay shorline in the site area is depositional, with accretion and eolian processes. Some portions are in depositional-erosional equilibrium.

Hurricane Washover The site is a potential hurricane washover channel.

Surface Faults, Lineers and Subsurface "Foult" Projections The nearest linears reported in the literature trend northwest-southeast, at approximately one mile distance each, on either

, side of the site. Two possible projections of subsurface faults l reported in the literature are located near the site area. One projection trends northeast-southwest approximately one mile 1

BZ-l-3 TERACORPORATION

northeast of the site. The linear to the northeast is concurrent i with the subsurface fault projection in the same creo.

Confirmation of surface and subsurface geology, especially the ,

surface location of subsurface faults and the correlation with photolinears, should be accomplished through a detailed ex-pioration program, using various investigative techniques shown eff ective in similar studies. This should include both remote and on-site investigative methods.

e Topography, Soil Stability and Construction Suitability The site is basically flat, ranging from sea level to five feet throughout.

The area is dominantly coastal marsh with some sand flots, subject to frequent inundations, with a permanently high water table, very low permeability, high water-holding capacity, very poor drainage, wry poor load bearing strength and high organic content.

e Subsidence Total recorded subsidence in this crea is between 0.2 feet and 1.0 feet.

The site area is believed to be affected by natural regional coastal subsidence. Local groundwater withdrawal is thought to have little effect on subsidence in this region, although a major increase in groundwater withdrawal in the site crea would likely be accompanied by ground surface subsidence.

e Aquifers This site is located on a " conditionally acceptable" aquifer zone. A -

detailed on-site hydrogeologic investigation is needed to establish the conformance of this site to current requirements.

Meteorology e Atmospheric Dispersion Evoluotion of preliminary information including wind speed, atmospheric stability and topography indicates that the short 'erm diffusion character-istics of the site are adequate and that the good annual overage diffusion l characteristics exist. There are no significant topographic restrictions to dispersion in the site vicinity. Overall diffusion characteristics are such that additional engineering features designed to limit fission product l

release should not be required.

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e Tornado and Extreme Winds All of the sites under consideration lie within Design Basis Tornado Region 1.

General Design Criteria 2, " Design Basis for Protection Against Natural Phenomeno" of Appendix A to 10 CFR 50, " Licensing of Production Focility", requires that structure, systems and com-ponents important to saf ety be designed to withstand the effects of natural phenomeno such as tornadoes without loss of capability of their safety functions. A design basis tornado, acceptable to the Regulatory Stoff, hos been specified in Regulatory Guide 1.76. The requirements are shown in Table i on the following page.

e Fogging and Icing Since the plant will employ once-through cooling at this site, and a submerged offshore discharge in the Gulf of Mexico is planned, no fogging or icing eff ects will occur.

e Wind Chorocteristics The mean wind speed for the site is about 12 mph. The prevailing wind direction is from the south-southeast, which places Houston 35-40 miles distant on the streamline of prevailing winds for gaseous effluent releases, l

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BZ-l-5 TERACORDORATION

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TABLEI DESIGN BASIS TORNADO CHARACTERISTICS (from Regulatory Guide 1.76)

Region I ll Ill Maximum Wind Speed (mph) 360 300 240 Rotational Speed (mph) 290 240 190 Translationai Speed (mph)

Maximum 70 60 50 b

Minimum 5 5 5 Radius of Maximum Rotational Speed (f t) 150 150 150 Pressure Drop (psi) 3.0 2.25 1.5 Rate of Pressure Drop (psi /sec) 2.0 1.2 0.6 The maximum wind speed is the sum of the rotational speed component and the maximum translational speed component.

b The minimum translational speed, which allows maximum trans!; time of the tornado across exposed plant features, is to be used whene. er low travel speeds (maximum transit time) are a limiting factor in design of the ultimate heat sink. The ultimate heat sink is that complex of water sources, including associated retaining structures, and any canals or conduits connecting the sources with, but not including, the intoke struc-tures of nuclear reactor units. Regulatory Guide 1.27 (Sofety Guide 27),

" Ultimate Heat Sink," describes a basis that may be used to implement General Design Criterion 44 of Appendix A to 10 CFR Part 50 with regard to the ultimate heat sink.

BZ-l-6 TERACORPORATION

Hydrology e Avollobility of Cooling Water Water necessary to meet the cooling requirements for a 2,600 MWe nucleo-station (LWR) would be supplied vio a once-through system from the Gulf of Mexico. The intake pipeline would be opproximately 4,400 feet long and the discharge pipeline would be approximately 6,800 feet long.

e Water Quality 1 The quality of the cooling water available of the site should be acceptable.  !

The cooling system would use seawater intake from, and discharge to, the Gulf of Mexico.

e Flood Protection The site is subjected to flooding during storm surge and wave run-up from Gulf of Mexico hurricanes. The plant grade should be raised to prevent flooding and slope protection should be provided below this level.

e Oceanography Located on-land, the site is somewhat protected from waves and littoral drift caused impacts. Beach erosion may be significant.

Ecology e Environmentally Sensitive Considerations Flora Three ecological habitat types occur on the Bz-l site:

(1) barrier flots; (2) tidal marshes; and (3) coastal ponds.

Barrier flots or sand flots are found on the boy side of Follets Island behind the beach ridge north of the beachfront rood (Brazoria County Road 257). On and near the site the barrier flots consist of sand vegetated with salt-toleront grosses. Most of the site is tidal marshland with vegetation, such as cordgrass (Sportino sp.). The vegetation on the site and surrounding areas

, is important for biological processes and for erosion stabiliza-( tion.

l Founo 1

Site founo of sediment dwellers, such as nematodes, poly-choetes and clams, os well as gross shrimp, crabs, shore birds and waterfowl. Although it is unlikely that any known threatened or endangered animal species reside on the site, it is possible that several sensitive species recognized by the U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Depart-ment or the Texas Organization for Endangered Species may l

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frequent the site area. These species include the brown pelican, olivaceous cormorant, reddish egret, wood ibis, American oystercatcher, white faced ibis, and roseate spoon-bill. Bird rookeries are located near San Luis Pass, southeast of the site and on Mud Island, north of the site.

The site is located in a coastal region considered to be of particular environmental concern as described in the Texas Coastal Management Plan. Facility construction and operation activities, such as dredging, spoil placement and operation of a cooling water intake system and thermal discharge system, that would affect the biota of San Luis Pass, Cold Pass, Churchill Bayou, Christmas Bay, or the nearshore Gulf may cause signi-ficant negative ecological impact.

There is a high probability of significant licensing difficulities because of the ecological impact of utilizing this site for power plant development.

Demography The plant site falls outside of the exclusion areas defined by the demographic criteria provided below, o Cumulative population versus distance from the reactor will not exceed:

0 - 5 miles s 30,000 persons 0 - 20 miles s 500,000 persons 0 - 40 miles s 2,000,000 persons '

e Local population densities should not exceed 220 persons per square miles within two miles of the reactor, e The exclusion zone distance from the reactor to the site boundary should be greater than or equal to that calculated for the specific reactor type and size an in any event should be greater than 0.5 miles.

Land Use e Existing Land Use The site consists of sand flats, coastal marshland and coastal ponds.

Existing land use consists of coastal wildlife habitat (especially birds) and limited recreational use (e.g. bird watching). The Brazoria National Wildlife refuge is located approximately five miles west of the site. Land use of the ir>take and discharge pipeline routes consists of a county road and undeveloped beach available to the general public.

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1 BZ-l-8 TERACORPORATION

I e Airspace The site lies outside of circraf t, prohibited, restricted, warning and alert arcos. A private small craf t landing strip lies within 1,000 feet of the site to the east.

e Mineral Reserves j No known mineral reseiVes are believed to exist within the plant site area.

e Oil and Gas Fields No known or developed oil and gas fields are believed to exist within the plant site creo. No known underground petroleum or petroleum product pipelines are located in the' site creo.

e Archeological & Historical Sites No known archeological or historical sites are believed to exist within the projected site boundaries. Detailed archeological and historical investigo-tions would be necessary to confirm the initial investigations, e Recreational Sites No recreation areas are located within the si'te area. The site and surrounding environs are available for recreational activities, such as hiking and bird watching. The 1,075-acre Mud Island State Recreational Park lies across Cold Pass from the site to the north. The beach shoreline south of the site is available to the public for swimming and fishing.

e Proposed Land Use Plans The proposed site area does not conflict with any known land use plans; however, the site is within on area of particular state concern expressed in the Texas Coastal Management Program. State concerns in the crea include the designations of Christmas, Bostrop, and Drum boys and bayous,

! Mud Island, and San Luis Pass os critical habitats for marine and coastal

! ecosystems and associated biota. Follets Island and the surrounding area also are designated by the state os on important natural crea for waterfowl. Bird rookeries are located near Son Luis Pass southeast of the site and on Mud Island north of the site. Licensing difficulties associated with conflicts in land use could be major licensing issues.

Aesthetics Because of the flot topography of the site crea the plant facilities and transmission lines would be visible for considerable distances and would be visible from the Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge, farm-to-market roads 523 and 2004, the San Luis Pass tollbridge and Brazoria County Road 257, as well as the intracoastal Waterway and the Gulf of Mexico. The plant complex and transmission towers would be the dominant features on the landscape.

BZ-l-9 TERACORPORATION

a e Noise Construction noise would impact bird populations in the creas surrounding .,

the site. Noise from construction and operation of the facility and from traffic would be noticeable in the relatively isolated site and nearby areas.

Transportation ,

e Motor Corrier Service and Access The site could be served by carriers operating over Texas Highway 332, r

which connects with the medium duty Brazoria County Road 257.

l e Railroad Service and Access The Bz-l site could be served by a railroad spur extending from a borge facility located north of the site on Christmas Bay. Borge access from the  ;

facility to the intracoastal Waterway would require dredging or channel

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construction. '

e Roads and Highways The site is located within 2,000 feet from o medium duty beachfront road which is Brazoria County Road 257. This road is the only land access ,

route. To the east of the site, this road connects Follets Island with .

Galveston Island via o toll bridge.

e Waterways The Texas Intracoastal Waterway is located less than four miles north of the site. Borge access from the waterway would require construction of a channel across Bastrop or Christmas boys. Any dredging or chonr.at construction would probably receive considerable environmental opposition.

9 TERACORPORATION

SITE CH-I Type: Cooling Pond Site Using Salt Water Size: The cooling pond will inundate approximately 3,800 ocres. The total land crea for the site will be somewhat dependent on the parcel size but should be about 4,800 acres.

Location: The Ch-l site is located in Chambers County. It is S miles northwest of Winnie, S7 miles east of the center of Houston, and 10 miles south of Nome.

Factors: The summary findings from application of the regional environment protection considerations listed below are discussed on the followirig pages.

Regional Environmental Protection Considerations Geology and Seismology Meteorology Hydrology Ecology Demography Land Use Aesthetics Transporation 1

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Geology and Seismology e Geologic Setting i Age: Pleistocene Surficial Sediment Assemblage: Fluvial-deltaic System e Surface Material Types Interdistributary muds incluing boy, marsh, flood basin, and locally, aban-doned channel facies.

e Underlying Deposits Pleistocene: Beaumont Clay Formation Pleistocene age delta plain deposits; principally calareous red, brown, or yellow clay that weathers bluish-gray or black; with logs, peat, fossil plants and some shells; represents interdistributary muds, abandoned channel-fill muds, fluvial overbank muds, and locally, bay, marsh, lagoon and backswamp muds. These sands exhibit moderate to high permeability, moderate to good drainage, moderate water-holding capacity, moderate to low compressibility, low shrink-swell potential, high shear strength and low plasticity.

e Geological Hazards Salt Domes The areas of potential salt dome activity closest to the site are Figridge Dome (1-1/2 miles south) and Hankamer Dome (2-l/2 miles west).

Seismicity The recorded earthquake epicenters closest to the site are:

1 Lat. Long. Intensity Distance Date (N) (W) (MM) Location (Mi.)

1 3/24/66 30.000 94.00 None Reported Sabine, Texas 27 10/17/52 30.120 93.730 IV Orange, Texas 47 l l/7/56 29.300 94.800 IV Galveston Island 37 Texas Three earthquakes of intensity I, reported at Hobby Airport, Houston, Texas, in June 1969, have been recorded but are possible sonic booms.

Linears and Subsurface "Foult" Projections Two literature linears are located north of the site and two run through the southern part of the cooling pond. A series of subsurface fault projections associated with the Sea Breeze oil field fall to the south and east of the site.

CH-l-2 TERACORPORATION

Confirmation of surface and subsurface geology, especially the surface location of subsurface faults, should be accomplished through a detailed exploration program, using various investigative techniques shown ef-fective in similar studies. This should include both remote and on-site investigative methods.

e Topography, Soil Stability and Construction Suitability The topography of the site is flat, with irrigation levees for agriculture.

Rush Ditch and Spindletop Bayou run through the middle of the site from north to south. The soils have moderate slope stability and moderate shrink-swell. Bearing capacity is low to moderate. Excavation will be relatively easy, with no blasting required. The soil has fair drainage with low to moderate permeability.

e Subsidence Total recorded subsidence in this area is between 0.2 and 1.0 feet. The site area is believed to be offected by natural regional coastal subsidence.

Local groundwater withdrawal is thought to have had little effect on subsidence in this region, although a major increase in groundwater withdrawal in the site crea would likely be accompanied by ground surface subsidence.

e Aquifers This site is located on a " conditionally acceptable" aquifer zone. A detailed on-site hydrogeological investigation is needed to establish the conformance of this site to current requirements I

Meterology e Atmospheric Dispersion Evaluation of preliminary information including wind speed, atmospheric stability and topography indicates that the short-term diffusion character-istics of the site are equal to or better than the diffusion characteristics of the NRC models appearing in the Regulatory Guides. It also appears that good annual overage diffusion chorocteristics e.(ist and are such that i additional engineering features designed to limit fission product release should not be required.

e Tornado and Extreme Winds All of the sites under consideration lie within Design Basis Tornado Region I.

General Design Criteria 2, " Design Bases for Protection Against Natural Phenomeno" of Appendix A to 10 CFR 50, " Licensing of Production Facility", requires that structure, systems and compon-ents important to safety be designed to withstand the effects of natural phenomena such as tornadoes without loss of capability of their safety functions. A design basis tornado, acceptable to the Regulatory Staff, has been specified in Regulatory Guide 1.76. The requirements are shown in Table I below.

CH-l-3 TERACORPORATION

TABLEI ~

DESIGN BASIS TORNADO CHARACTERISTICS (from Regulatory Guide 1.76)

Region i 11 til Maximum Wind Speed (mph) 360 300 240 Rotational Speed (mph) 290 240 190 Trcnslational Speed (mph) -_

Maximum 70 60 50 b

Minimum 5 5 5 Radius of Maximum Rotationc! Speed (ft) 150 150 150 Pressure Drop (psi) 3.0 2.25 1.5 Rete of Pressure Drop (psi /sec) 2.0 1.2 0.6 The maximum wind speed is the sum of the rotational speed component and the maximum translational speed component.

b The minimum translational speed, which allows maxirnum trcnsit time of the tornado across exposed plant features, is to be used whenever low travel speeds (maximum trcnsit time) are a limiting fcctor in design of the ultimate heat sink. The ultimate hect sink is that complex of water sources, including associated retaining structures, and any canals or conduits connecting the sources with, but not including, the intake struc-tures of nuclear reactor units. Regulatory Guide 1.27 (Sofety Guide 27),

" Ultimate Hect Sink," describes a basis that may be used to implement General Design Criterion 44 of Appendix A to 10 CFR Part 50 with regard to the ultimate heat sink.

CH-l-4  %

TERACORPORAT)CN

e Foqqing and icing Cooling pond or tower fogging tendencies are such that when the air is colder than the surface water temperatures, shallow fogs may occur which, in the case of the Ch-l site, could cause reduced visibility on Interstate Route 10, Texas Routes 124, 326, 73 and 65, the town of Winnie and on local form to market roads.

e Wind Characteristics The mean wind speed for the Ch-l is 10.5 mph. The prevailing wind direction is from the south - southeast, which does not place any major population center on the streamline of prevailing winds for gaseous effluent releases.

Hydrology e Availability of Cooling Water Water necessary to meet the makeup requirements for a 2,600 MWe nuclear station (LWR) would be taken from the Gulf.

For the Ch-l site, it would be necessary to pump the water approximately 24 miles to the proposed cooling lake.

e Water Quality The quality of the cooling water available at the Ch-l site should be acceptable. The cooling system will use saltwater makeup from, and retum blowdown to, the Gulf.

e Flood Protection The safety related features of the plant and, in fact, the entire plant will be prota:ted against the probable maximum flood and against the failure of upstream dams by siting above the flood plain. Backwater studies will be made to verify selection prior to finalized s_ite selection.

Ecology e Environmentally Sensitive Considerations l

Flora l Due to present land use, the floro of the site crea is in on early state of succession and probably does not contain any environmentally sensitive species. Agricultural use and grazing has served to degrcde the floro of the site.

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l CH-l-5 TERACORPORATION

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Fauna While no specific environmentally sensitive founo are believed to inhabit the specific site area, the region is part of the ronge of the following endangered founo:

American Alligator Eskimo Curlew _

' Brown Pelican Arctic Peregrine Falcon Southern Bold Eagle Red Wolf --

Demography The plant site follt, outside of the exclusion creas defined by the demographic criterio provided below.

e Cumulative population versus distance from the reactor will not exceed:

0 - 5 miles s 30,000 persons 0 - 20 miles s 500,000 persons 0 - 40 miles s 2,000,000 persons e Local r pulation densities should not exceed 220 persons per square mile within 2 miles of the reactor.

e The exclusion zone distance from the reactor to the site boundary should be greater than or equal to that calculated for the specific reactor type and size and in any event should be greater than 0.5 miles.

Land Use e Existing Land Use l

The land is presently used for rice forming and is excellent ogricultural land. The community of Winnie is located to the southeast of the prospective site. Approximately 17 residences are located within the prospective site boundaries. Due to the high quality of agricultural land and the large creo of land that would be removed from production by a l cooling pond, licensing problems associated with conflicts in land use could be o major licensing issue. The use of soltwater cooling towers could

! reduce the land crea required for the facility, but would not be economi-1 colly viable since the make-up water is taken from the Gulf, 24 miles away.

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CH-l-s TERACORPORATION l

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e Airspace The plant site lies outside of aircraft, prohibited, restricted, warning and alert creas, and airport control zones extending upwards from the surface.

Low altitcde Federal Airway V-20 crosses over the proposed cooling pond site.

e Mineral Reserves No known mineral reserves are believed to exist within the plant site area.

o Oil and Gas Fields The available literature indicates possible oil and gas fields in the western portion of the proposed. cooling pond site. Two pipelines cross the proposed cooling ponds.  %.,

• si e Archeological & Historical Sites No known archeological or historical sites are believed to exist within the projected site boundaries. Further detailed archeological and historical investigation should confirm the initial investigations.

e Recreational Sites No recreational sites cre known to exist within the plant site area.

e Proposed Land Use Plans The proposed site area does not conflict with any known land use plans.

1 Aesthetics

! Due to the topography of the site area, the reactor building complex and the l

transmission lines will be visible from Interstate 10, Texas Routes 65, 73, 124, l 326, the town of Winnie and local farm to market roads. The plant complex, heat dissipation system, and transmission structures would be dominant features on the landscape.

l l e Noise The noise created by construction and operation of the facility is not expected to cause undue impact in the site creo. The make-up water intake structure, however, will have to be located and designed to mitigate the noise associated with the traveling screens.

If a mechanical draft cooling tower system is selected as the heat dissipation system, more detailed analyses should be performed to deter-mine the buffer zone required for abatement of fan noise.

CH-I-7 TERACORPORATION

a Transportation e Motor Corrier Service and Access The Ch-l site could be served by carriers operating over Interstate Highway 10 to the south, e Railroad Service and Access The Ch-l site could be served by a railroad spur extending from the Texas and New Orleans (Southern Pacific) Railroad which runs north of the site. -

e Roads and Highways The Ch-I site is located one mile north of Interstate 10, near Form Road 1406, which provides excellent east-west access.

e Waterways The Ch-l site is land locked.

l CH- l-8 TERACORPORATION t

SITE JE-2 Type: Cooling Pond Site Using Salt Water Size: The cooling pond will inundate opproximately 3,800 acres. The total land crea for the site will be somewhat dependent on the parcel size but should be about 4,800 acres.

Location: The Je-2 site is located in Jefferson County. It is 27 miles southwest of the center of Port Arthur,9 miles northeast of High Island, and 67 miles east of the center of Houston.

Factors: The summary findings from application of the regional environmental protection considerations listed below are discussed on the following pages.

Regional Environmental Protection Considerations Geology and Seismology -

Meteorology Hydrology Ecology Demogaphy Land Use Aesthetics Transportotion i

l JE-2-1 TERACORPORATION

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l Geology and Seismology e Geologic Setting Age: Pleistocene Surficial Sediment Assemblage: Flaviol-deltaic System e Surface Material Types Some coastal marsh, soit, brackish and fresh water. _,

Some interdistributary muds including boy, flood basin, and, locally, aban-doned channel facies, e Underlying Deposits Pleistocene: Beaumont Clay Formation Pleistocene age detto plain deposits; principally calareous red, brown or yellow clay that weathers bluish-gray or block; with logs, peat, fossil plants and some shells; represents interdistributary muds, abandoned channel-fill muds, fluvial overbank muds, and locally, bay, marsh, lagoon and backswamp muds. These deposits are charccterized by low per-meability, high water-holding capacity, high compressibility, high to very high shrink-swell potential, poor drainage, low shear strength and high plasticity. The clays are interbedded with highly lenticular beds of gray to bluish-gray sandy clay, silt, and very find-grained to medium grained sand representing levee, crevosse spicy, distributary and locally, meanderbeit sand. These deposits exhibit low to moderate permeability, high to moderate water-holding capacity, moderate compressibility, moderate to low shrink-swell potential, moderate drainage, moderate to high shear l strength and low plasticity. Meanderbelt sand may be under-consolidated and subject to liquification.

Pleistocene: Lissie Formation l Alternating beds of fine to coarse gray sand and thin lenses of fine gravel

! interbedded with gray, brown, blue and red clayey sand and sandy clay l representing fine-grained meanderbeit sands, levee, crevasse splay, and distributary sands, and floodbasin mud over meanderbeit sand. Units are typically lenticular, but a few thicker clay strata mcy be traced over county-sized areas. These sands exhibit moderate to high permeability, moderate to good drainage, moderate water-holding capacity, moderate to low compressibility, low shrink-swell potential, high shear strength and low plasticity. Some sands may be under-compacted and subject to liquifico-tion. These sandy clays exhibit moderate permeability, moderate drainage, moderate to high shear strength, and moderate to low shrink-swell potential. A few thicker clays have high water-holding capacity, high compressibility, high to very high shrink-swell potertial, poor drainage, low l shear strength and high piasticity.

l JE-2-2 TERACORPORATION l

i e Geologic Hazards Salt Domes The closest edge of an area defined as being influenced by salt dome activity is Big Hill Dome, I mile north, and Clam Lake Dome, 2 miles west of the site.

Seismicity The closest reported earthquake epicenters to the site recorded in historic time were:

Lat. Long. Intensity Distance Date (N) (W) (MM) Location (MI.)

3/24/66 30.000 94.000 None Reported Sabine, Texas 20 10/17/52 30.120 93.730 IV Orange, Texas 38 i/7/56 29.300 94.800 IV Calveston Island, 35 Texas Linears and Subsurface "Foult" Projections No linears are shown in the literature to run through the site area. The closest linear is I/4 mile north of the cooling pond, paralleling the intercoastal Waterway in a northeast, southeast direction.

The tiosest projection of subsurface faulting is one mile east and two miles west of the cooling pond boundaries.

Confirmation of surface and subsurface geology, especially the surface location of subsurface fau!ts and the correlation with photo-lineers, should be accomplished through a detailed exploration program, using various investigative techniques shown effective in similar studies. This should l include both remote and on-site investigative methods.

e Topography, Soil Stability and Construction Suitability l The topography of the site is flat. One arm of Star Lake extends into the I

eastern end of the site creo. The site lies in a region where salt water / fresh water marsh covers the majority of the land, depending on the season. The soils have low to moderate slope stability and moderate to high shrink-swell. Bearing capacity is low. Excavation will be easy, with no blasting required. The clays are fairly impermeable and therefore will not drain easily.

l JE-2-3 TERACORPORATION

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e Subsidence _

Total recorded subsidence in this crea is between 0.2 feet and 1.0 feet.

The site area is believed to be offected by natural regional coastal subsidence. Local groundwater withdrawal is thought to have had little 4

effect on subsidence in this region, although a major increase in ground- l water withdrawal in the site crea would likely be occompanied by ground surface subsidence. __

e Aquifers This site is located on a " conditionally acceptable" oquifer zone. A detailed on-site hydrogeologic investigation is needed to establish the .

conformance of this site to current requirements.

Meteorology e Atmospheric Dispersion '

Evoluotion of preliminary information including wind speed, atmospheric stability and topography indicates that the short-term diffusion chorocter-istics of the site are equal to or better than the diffusion chorocteristics of the NRC models appearing in the Regulatory Guides. It also appears that good annual overage diffusion characteristics exist and are such that additional engineering features designed to limit fission product release should not be required.

e Tornado and Extreme Winds All of the sites under consideration lie within Design Basis Tornado Region I.

General Design Criteria 2, " Design Basis for Protection Against Natural Phenomeno" of Appendix A to 10 CFR 50, " Licensing of Production Facility", requires that structure, systems and com-ponents important to safety be designed to withstand the effects of natural phenomeno such as tornadoes without loss of capability of their safety functions. A design basis tornado, acceptable to the Regulatory Staff, has been specified in Regulatory Guide 1.76. The requirements are shown in Table I below.

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l JE-2-4 i

TERACORPORATION

l TABLEI DESIGN BASIS TORNADO CHARACTERISTICS (from Regulatory Guide 1.76)

Region l ll lil Maximum Wind Speed (mph) 360 300 240 Rotational Speed (mph) 290 240 190 Translational Speed (mph)

Maximum 70 60 50 b

Minimum 5 5 5 Radius of Maximum Rotational Speed (ft) 150 150 150 Pressure Drop (psi) 3.0 2.25 1.5 Rate of Pressure Drop (psi /sec) 2.0 1.2 0.6 The maximum wind speed is the sum of the rotational speed component orxf the maximum translational speed component.

b The minimum translational speed, which allows maximum transit time of the tornado across exposed plant features, is to be used whenever low travel speeds (maximum transit time) are a limiting factor in design of the ultimate heat sink. The ultimate heat sink is that complex of water sources, including associated retaining structures, and any canals or conduits connecting the sources with, but not including, the intake struc-tures of nuclear reactor units. Regulatory Guide 1.27 (Sofety Guide 27),

" Ultimate Heat Sink," describes a basis that may be used to implement General Design Criterion 44 of Appendix A to 10 CFR Part 50 with regard to the ultimate heat sink.

1 JE-2-5 TERACORPORATION l

a e Fogging and Icing Cooling pond or tower fogging tendencies are such that when the air is 4 colder than the surface water temperatures, shallow fogs may occur which, in the cose of the Je-2 site, could cause reduced visibility on the Intracoastal Waterway, on local site access roads and possibly on Texas Coastal Highway 87 and Route 124.

e Wind Chorocteristics The mean wind speed for the Je-2 site is Il.3 mph. The prevailing wind _

direction is from the south - southeast, which does not place any major population center on the streamline of prevailing winds for gaseous j effluent releases.

Hydrology e Avollobility of Cooling Water Water necessory to meet the makeup requirements for a 2,600 MWe nuclear station (LWR) would be taken from the Gulf.

For the Je-2 site, it would be necessary to pump the water opproximately 2 miles to the proposed cooling lake.

e Water Quality The quality of the cooling water available at the Je-2 site should be acceptable. The cooling system will be soltwater makeup from, and return blowdown to, the Gulf.

e Flood Protection The plant grade should be raised to prevent flooding caused by hurricane surge and wave run up. Slope protection should be provided below this level.

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Ecology e Environmentally Sensitive Considerations Flora The site is almost completely marshland which has been degraded some-what by grazing. The marshland vegetation includes seashore solfgross, seashore pospolum, common reed, cordgrass, rush, and bulrush.

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JE-2-6 TERACORPORATION t

Fauna The site, with its extensive open water and oppropriate food plants, provides excellent waterfowl habitat. The marshland may serve os nursery grounds for commercially important marine species (e.g. shrimp, crob, various fishes). Be ause there is limited access between the Gulf and the marshes the present nursery value of the crea is uncertain. Rare and endangered species which may reside in the area are the alligator and red wolf. Peregine falcons may traverse the creo in migration. The region is also port of the range of the following endangered fauna:

Eskimo Curlew Brown Pelican Southern Bold Eagle it has been determined that due to the ecological sensitivity of this area t,here ,would be high probability that ecologic issues would be raised in licensing proceedings.

Demography The plant site fails outside of the exclusion arcos defined by the demographic criteria provided below.

e Cumulative population versus distance from the reactor will not exceed:

0 - 5 miles s 30,000 persons 0 - 20 miles s 500,000 persons l 0 - 40 miles s 2,000,000 persons e Local population densities should not exceed 220 persons per square miles within 2 miles of the reactor.

e The exclusion zone distance from the reactor to the site boundary should l be greater than or equal to that calculated for the specific reactor type l and size and, in any event, should be greater than 0.5 miles.

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l Land Use e Existing Land Use The site is almost completely marshland. The higher, drier portions of this l

marshland are presently being used for grazing. The land ranges from poor to fair agricultural land. There are no residences within the prospective site boundaries. The entire site is located within the boundorM of the McFadden Ranch.

JE-2-7 TERACORPORATION

e Airspace The plant site lies outside aircraf t, prohibited, restricted, warning and alert areas, and airpcrt control zones extending upwards from the surface. .

. Mineral Reserves No known mineral reserves are believed to exist within the plant site creo.

e Oil and Gas Fields No known or developed oil and gas fields are believed to exist within the site boundaries.

e Archeological & Historical Sites No known archeological or historical sites are believed to exist within the projected site boundaries. Further detailed archeological and historical investigation should confirm the initial investigations.

e Recreational Sites No recrmtional sites are known to exist within the plant site area.

e Proposed Land Use Plans The proposed site area does not conflict with any known land use plans.

Aesthetics Due to the flat topography of the site area, the reactor building complex and the transmission lines will be visible from Teros Routes 73, 87 and 124, the Intracoastal Waterway and the Gulf. The plant complex heat dissipation system and transmission structures would be dominant features on the landscape.

e Noise The noise created by construction and operation of the facility is not expected to cause undue impact in the site creo. The make-up water intake structure, however, will have to be located and designed to mitigate the noise associated with the traveling scraens.

If a mechanical draft cooling tower system is selected as the heat dissipation system, more detailed analyses should be performed to deter-mine the buffer zone required for abatement of fan reise.

JE-2-8 TERACORPORATION

Transportation e Motor Carrier Service and Access The Je-2 could be served by carriers operating over Texas Highway 87 to the south, e Railroad Service and Access The Je-2 site could be served by a railroad spur extending from a borge facility located on the Intracoastal Waterway just north of the site.

e Roads and Highways The Je-2 site is located just north of Texas Highway \ 87, which provides good east-west access.

e Waterways The Je-2 site could be served from the Intracoastal Waterway by building a barge facility and constructing a railroad spur to the site.

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l JE-2-9 TERACORPORATION

SITE JE-3 Type: Cooling Pond Site Using Salt Water Size: The cooling pond will inundate approximately 3,800 acres. The total land area for the site will be somewhat dependent on the porcel size but should be coout'4,800 acres.

Location: The Je-3 site is located in Jefferson and Chamber Counties. It is 5 miles north of High Island,13 miles south of Winnie, and 60 miles east of the center of Houston.

Factors: The summary findings from the application of the regional environ-mental protection considerations listed below are discussed on the following pages.

Regional Environmental Protection Considerations Geology and Seismology Meteorology Hydrology Ecology Demography Land Use Aesthetics Transportation i

i JE-3-1 l

TERACORPORATION

i e Geologic Setting -

Age: Pleistocene Surficial Sediment Assemblage: Fluvial-deltaic System e Surface Material Types Mostly interdistributary muds including boy, marsh, flood basin and locally abandoned channel facies. -

Some flood plain mud veneer over meander belt sands.

Some coastal marsh, salt, brackish and fresh water.

e Underlying Deposits Pleistocene: Beaumont Clay Formation Pleistocene age delta plain deposits; principolly calareous red, brown, or yellow clay that weathers bluish-gray or block; with logs, peat, fossil plants and some shells; represents interdistributary muds, abandoned channel-fill muds, fluvial overbank muds, and locally, bay, marsh, logoon orx! backswamp muds. These deposits are characterized by low per-meability, high water-holding capacity, high compressibility, high to very high shrink-swell potential, poor drainage, low shear strength and high plasticity. The lays are interbedded wit.i highly lenticuler beds of gray to bluish-gray sandy clay, silt, and very fine-grained to medium grained sand representing levee, crevasse splay, distributary and, locally, meanderbeit sand. These high to moderate water-holding capacity, moderate compres-sibility, moderate to low shrink-swell potential, moderate drainage, moderate to high shear strength and low plasticity. Meanderbelt sand may be under-consolidated and subject to liquification.

Pleistocene: Lissie Formation Alternating beds of fine to coarse gray sand and think lenses of fine gravei interbedded with gray, brown, blue and red clayey sand and sandy clay representing fine-grained meanderbelt sands, levee, crevasse, splay, and distributary sands, and floodbosin mud over meanderbelt sand. Units are typically lenticular, but a few ?hicker clay strato may be traced over county-sized creas. These sands exhibit moderate to high permeability, l moderate to good drainage, moderate water-holding capacity, moderate to low compressibility, low shrink-swell potential, high shear strength and low plasticity. Some sands may be under-compacted and subject to liquifico-tion. The sandy clays exhibit moderate to high shear strength, and moderate to low shrink-swell potential. A few thicker clays have high water-holding capacity, high compressibility, high to very high shrink-swell potential, poor drainage, low shear strength and high plasticity.

JE-3-2 TERACORPORAT)ON

e Geological Hazards Salt Onmes The closest edge of an crea defined as being influenced by salt dome activity is Big Hill,2 miles east, and High Island,2 miles south of the site.

Seismicity The closest reported earthquake epicenters to the site recorded in historic time were:

Lat. Long. Intensity Distance Date _(N,)_ (W) (MM) Location (MI.)

l 3/24/66 30.000 94.000 None Reported Sabine, Texas 26 10/17/52 30.120 93.730 IV Orange, Texas 46 I/7/56 29.300 94.800 IV Galveston Island, 32 Texas Linears and Subsurface "FoulP Projections Four literature lineers cross through the cooling pond, running cost-west.

Several projections of subsurface faults also cross through the pond, close to its eastern boundary.

Confirmation of surface and subsurface geology, especially the surface location of subsurface faults and the correlation with photolinears, should be accomplished through a detailed exploration program, using various investigative techniques shown effective in similar studies. This should include both remote and on-site investigative methods.

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- Topography, Soil Stability and Construction Suitability l

l The topography of the site is flat, with Barnes Slough draining the south end of the site into the intracoastal Waterway. Levees have been constructed throughout the site for control of drainage. The soils have low to moderate slope stability and moderate to high shrink-swell. Bearing capacity is low. Excavation will be easy, with no blasting required. The clays are faily impermeable and therefore will not drain easily.

. Subsidence Total recorded subsidence in this crea is between 0.2 feet and 1.0 feet.

The site crea is believed to be affected by natural regional coastal subsidence. Local groundwater withdrawal is thought to have had little effect on subsidence in this region, although a major increase in ground-

! water withdrawal in the site area would likely be accompanied by ground l surface subsidence.

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l JE-3-3 TERACORPORATION

e Aouifers -

This site is located on a " conditionally acceptable" oquifer zone. A detailed on-site hydrogeologic investigation is needed to establish the conformance of this site to current requirements.

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Meteorology

~

e Atmospheric Dispersion Evoluotion of preliminary information including wind speed, atmospheric stability and topography indicates that the short-term diffusion char-acteristics of the site are equal to or better than the diffusion chor-acteristics of the NRC models appearing in the Regulatory Guides. It also appears that good annual overage diffusion chorocteristics exist and are such that additional engineering features designed to limit fission product release should not be required.

e Tornado and Extreme Winds All of the sites under construction lie within Design Basis Tornado Region I.

General Design Criteria 2, " Design bases for Protection Against Natural Phenomeno" of Appendix A to 10 CFR 50, " Licensing of Production Facility", requires that structure, systems and com-ponents important to safety be designed to withstand the effects of natural phenomeno such as tornadoes without loss of copobility of their safety functions. A design basis tornado, occeptable to the Regulatory Staff, has been specified in Regulatory Guide 1.76. The requirements are shown in Table i below.

l JE-3-4 TERACORPORATION

TABLEI DESIGN BASIS TORNADO CHARACTERISTICS (from Regulatory Guide 1.76)

Region l ll Ill Maximum Wind Speed (mph) 360 300 240 Rotational Speed (mph) 290 240 190 Translational Speed (mph)

Maximum 70 60 50 b

Minimum 5 5 5 Radius of Maximum Rotational Speed (f t) 150 150 150 Pressure Drop (psi) 3.0 2.25 1.5 Rote of Pressure Drop (psi /sec) 2.0 1.2 0.6 The maximum wind speed is the sum of the rotational speed component and the maximum translational speed component.

b The minimum translational speed, which allows maximum transit time of the tornado across exposed plant features, is to be used whenever low travel speeds (maximum transit time) are a limiting factor in design of the ultimate heat sink. The ultimate heat sink is that complex of water sources, including associated retaining structures, and any canals or conduits connecting the sources with, but not including, the intake struc-tures of nuclear reactor units. Regulatory Guide 1.27 (Safety Guide 27),

" Ultimate Heat Sink," describes a basis that may be used to implement General Design Criterion 44 of Appendix A to 10 CFR Port 50 with regard to the ultimate heat sink.

JE-3-5 TERACORPORATION

e Fogging and Icing Cooling pond or tower fogging tendencies are such that when the air is colder than the surface water temperatures, shallow fogs may occur which, ~

in the cose of the Je-3 site, could cause reduced visibility on the Intracoastal Waterway, on local site access roads and possibly on Texas Coastal Highway 87 and Route 124.

e Wind Chorocteristics The mean wind speed for the Je-3 site is Il.2 mph. The prevailing wind ,

direction is from the south - southeast, which does not place any major population center on the streamline of prevailing winds for gaseous effluent releases.

Hydrology e Availability of Cooling Water Water necessary to meet the makeup requirements for a 2,600 MWe nuclear station (LWR) would be taken from the Gulf.

For the Je-3 site, it would be necessary to pump the water opproximately 6 miles to the proposed cooling lake.

e Water Ovality The quality fo the cooling water available at the Je-3 site should be acceptable. The cooling system will use soltwater makeup from, and return blowdown to, the Gulf.

e Flood Protection The plant grade should be raised to prevent flooding caused by hurricane surge and wave run up. Slope protection should be provided below this level.

Ecology e Environmentally Sensitive Considerations Flora Due to present land use, the floro of the site crea is in an early stage of succession and probably does not contain any environmentally sensitive species. Agricultural use and grazing has served to degrade the floro of the site. Native vegetation consists mostly of grosses such as little bluestem, indiongross, eastern gomogross, switchgross, and big bluestem.

Introduced grosses (e.g. Bermudogross and carpetgrass) occur in tame postures. The rice irrigation system provides important waterfowl food such as smartweeds, wild millet and pond weeds.

JE-3-6 TERACORPORATION

Fauna The arco represents good waterfowl habitat. Wintering ducks and geese are attracted to the rice fields where food, including waste rice, is abundant. The irrigation system, including a diked lake, and the natural drainages provide open water for waterfowl and fish-eating birds. Nutrio and various aquatic reptiles are common. The site is within the range and contains habitat appropriate .for the alligator and red wolf. Migrating peregrine falcons may occur in the creo. The region is also part of the range of the following endangered founo:

Eskimo Curlew Brown Pelican Southern Bald Eagle None of these are believed to inhabit the specific site. The site is dissected by a system of rice irrigation canals and several small drainages leading to marshland adjacent to the southern boundary. The impact of modifing the quantity and quality of water entering these marshes would have to be assessed and could become licensing issues.

Demography The plant site falls outside of the exclusion areas defined by the demographic criteria provided below.

e Cumulative population versus distance from the reactor will not exceed:

0 - 5 miles 130,000 persons 0 - 20 miles 1500,000 persons 0 - 40 miles 12,000,000 persons

e Local population densities should not exceed 220 persons per square mile within 2 miles of the reactor.

l e The exclusion zone distance from the reactor to the site boundary should l

be greater than or equal to that calculated for the specific reactor type and size and in any event should be greater than 0.5 miles.

Land Use e Existing Land Use I

The land is presently being used for crop production, primarily rice, and grazing. The land is good to fair agricultural land. Approximately 3 residences are located within the prospective site boundaries, of which 2 are associated with White's Ranch which is just to the east of the prospective site.

JE-3-7 TERACORPORATION

C e Airspace The plant site lies outside circraf t, prohibited, restricted, warning and alert areas, and airport control zones extending upwards from the surface.

Low altitude Federal Airway V-198 crosses over the proposed cooling pond site.

e Mineral Reserves No known mineral reserves are believed to exist within the plant site creo.

e Oil and Gas Fields No known or developed oil and gas fields are believed to exist within the plant site area. No major underground pipelines are believed to be located within the site boundaries.

e Archological & Historical Site No known archeological or historical sites are believed to exist within the projected site boundaries. Further detailed orcheological and historical investigation should confirm the initial investigations.

e Recreational Sites No recreational sites are known to exist within the plant site creo.

e Proposed Land Use Plans The proposed site crea does not conflict with any known land use plans.

Aesthetics Due to the flat topography of the site crea, the reactor building complex and the transmission lines will be visible from Texas Routes 73, 87 and 124, the Intracoastal Waterway and the Gulf. The plant complex, heat dissipation system and transmission structures would be dominant features on the landscape.

e Noise The noise created by construction and operation of the facility is not expected to cause undue impact in the We area. The make-up water intake structure, however, will have to be located and designed to mitigate the noise associated with the traveling screens.

If a mechanical draft cooling tower system is selected as the heat dissipation system, more detailed analyses should be performed to deter-mine the buffer zone required for abatement of fan noise.

JE-3-8 TERA CORPORATION

Transportation e Motor Carrier Service and Access The Je-3 site could be served by corriers operating over Texas Highway 124 to the west.

e Railroad Service and Access The Je-3 site could be served by a railroad spur extending from a borge facility located on the Intracoastal Waterway just south of the site.

e Roads and Highways The Je-3 site is located one mile east of Texas Highway 124, which provides good north-south access.

e Waterways The Je-3 site could be served from the Intracoastal Waterway by building a borge facility and constructing a railroad spur to the site.

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JE-3-9 l

TERACORPORATION

SITE MA-l Type: Cooling Pond Site Using Salt Water Size: The cooling pond will inundate approximately 3,800 acres. The total land area for the site will be somewhat dependent on the parcel size but should be about 4,800 acres.

Location: The Ma-l Site is in Matagordo County. It is 2 miles southeast of Sargeant,13 miles south of Sweeny, and 6S miles southwest of the center of Houston.

Factors: The summary findings from application of the regional environmental protection considerations listed below are discussed on the following pages.

Regional Environmental Protection Considerations Geology and Seismology Meteorology Hydrology Ecology Demography Land Use Aesthetics Transportation l

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M A-l- l TERACORPORATION

Geology and Seismology e Geologic Setting Age: Modern Holocene Surficial Sediment Assemblage: Fluvial System e Surface Material Types Mostly meander belt sand, inactive, primary sediment within filled (non-entronched) volley, including levee, crevasse splay and, locally, flood basin mud deposit Some interdistributary silt and mud includes, locally, boy, and locustrine and crevasse splay facies e Underlying Deposits -

Pleistocene: Beaumont Clay Formation Pleistocene age delta plain deposits; principally coloreous red, brown, or yellow clay that weathers bluish-gray or block; with logs, peat, fossil plants and some shells; represents interdistributary muds, abandoned channel-fill muds, fluvial overbank muds, and, locally, boy, marsh, lagoon and backswamp muds. These deposits are chorocterized by low per- .

meability, high water-holding capacity, high compressibility, high to very high shrink-swell potential, poor drainage, low shear strength and high plasticity. The clays are interbedded with highly lenticular beds of gray to bluish-gray sandy clay, silt, and very fine-grained to medium grained sand representing levee, crevasse splay, distributary and, locally, meanderbeit sand. These high to moderate water-holding capacity, moderate compres-sibility, moderate to low shrink-swell potential, moderate drainage, moderate to high shear strength and low plasticity. Meanderbeit may be under-consolidated and subject to liquification.

l Pleistocene: Lissie Formation Alternating beds of fine to coarse gray sand and thin lenses of fine gravel interbedded with gray, brown, blue and red cloyey sand and sandy clay representing fine-groined meanderbeit sands, levee, crevasse splay, and distributary sands, and floodbosin mud over meanderbeit sand. Units are typically lenticular, but a few thicker clay strato may be traced over county-sized areas. These sands exhibit moderate to high permeability, moderate to good drainage, moderate water-holding capacity, moderage to low compressibility, low shrink-swell potential, high shear strength and low

, posticity. Some sands may be under-compacted and subject to liquifico-l tion. The sandy clays exhibit moderate to high shear strength, and moderate to low shrink-swell potential. A few thicker clays have high water-holding capacity, high compressibility, high to very high shrink-swell potential, poor drainage, low shear strength and high plasticity.

M A-I-2 l

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e Geologic Hazards Salt Domes The closest edge of an creo defined as being influenced by salt dome activity is Hawkinsville, I mile north of the site.

Seismicity The closest reported earthquake epicenter to the site recorded in historic time was:

Lat. Lon . Intensity Distance Date (N) (W (MM) Location (MI.)

I/7/56 29.300 94.800 17 Galveston Island, 53 Texas Note that three earthquakes of intensity 1, reported at Hobby Airport in Houston, Texas, in June 1969 have been recorded as possible sonic booms.

The unnamed events in 1910 north of Sealy, Texas and the Anderson event in 1914 near Sealy, Texas have not been substantiated by literature survey.

Linears and Subsurface "Foult" Projections One literature !inear bisects the cooling pond from northeast to southwest.

The closest subsurface fault projection lies 3 miles east of the site.

Confirmation of surface and subsurface geology, especially 'the surface location of subsurface faults and the correlation with photo-linears, should be accomplished through a detailed exploration program, using various investigative techniques shown effective in similar studies. This should include both remote and on-site investigative methods, e Topography, Soil Stability and Construction Suitability The site is flat, with several small levees and draws running north-south through the site. The soils have low to moderate slope stability and moderate to high shrink-swell. Bearing capacity is low. Excavation will be easy, with no blasting required. The clays are fairly impermeable and therefore will not drain easily.

e Subsidence Total recorded subsidence in this crea is between 0.2 feet and 1.0 feet.

The site crea is believed to be offected by natural regional coastal subsidence. Local groundwater withdrawal is thought to have had little effect on subsidence in this region, although a major increase in ground-water withdrawal in the site crea would likely be accompanied by ground surface subsidence.

MA-I-3 TERACORPORATION

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e Aquifers This site is located on a " conditionally acceptable" aquifer zone. A detailed on-site hydrogeologic investigation is needed to establish the -

conformance of this site to current requirements.

Meteorology e Atmospheric Dispersion Evoluotion of preliminary information including wind speed, atmospheric stability and tonography indicates that the short-term diffusion char- '

acteristics of the site are equal to or better than the diffusion chor- '

acteristics of the NRC models appearing in the Regulatory Guides. It also oppears that good annual overage diffusion chorocteristics exist and are such that additional engineering features designed to iimit fission product release should not be required. -

e Tornado and Extreme Wind All of the sites under consideration lie within Design Basis Tornado Region 1.

General Design Criteria 2, " Design Bases for Protection Against Natural Phenomeno" of Appendix A to 10 CFR 50, " Licensing of .

Production Facility", requires that structure, systems and com-ponents important to safety be designed to withstand the effects of natural phenomeno such as tornadoes without loss of capability of their safety functions. A design basis tornado, acceptable to the Regulatory Staff, has been specified in Regulatory Guide 1.76. The requirements are shown in Table I below.

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TABLEI DESIGN BASIS TORNADO CHARACTERISTICS

, (from Regulatory Guide 1.76)

Region i 11 Ill Maximum Wind Speed (mph) 360 300 240 Rotational Speed (mph) 290 240 190 Translational Speed (mph)

Maximum 70 60 50 b

Minimum 5 5 5 Radius of Maximum Rotational Speed (ft) 150 150 150 Pressure Drop (psi) 3.0 2.25 1.5 Rote of Pressure Drop (psi /sec) 2.0 1.2 0.6 The maximum wind speed is the sum of the rotational speed component and the maximum translational speed component.

b The minimum translational speed, which allows maximum transit time of the tornado across exposed plant features, is to be used whenever low travel speeds (maximum transit time) are a limiting factor in design of the ultimate heat sink. The ultimate heat sink is that complex of water sources, including associated retaining structures, and any canals .or I conduits connecting the sources with, but not including, the intake struc-i tures of nuclear reactor units. Regulatory Guide 1.27 (Sofety Guide 27),

l " Ultimate Heat Sink," describes a basis that may be used to implement General Design Criterion 44 of Appendix A to 10 CFR Port 50 with regard

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to the ultimate heat sink.

l MA-I-5 TERACORPORATION

e Fogging and Icinq -

Cooling pond or tower fogging tendencies are such that when the air is colder than the surface water temperatures, shallow fogs may occur which, ,

in the cose of the Mo-l site, could cause reduced visibility on the Intercoastal Waterway and on local form to market roods.

e Wind Chorocteristics -.

The mean wind speed for the Mo-l site is 10.9 mph. The prevailing wind direction is from the south - southeast, which does not place any major population center on the streamline of prevailing winds for gaseous '

effluent releases.

Hydrology e Availability of Cooling Water Water necessary to meet the makeup requirements for a 2,600 MWe nuclear station (LWR) would be taken from the Gulf.

For the Mo-l site, it would be necessary to pump the water opproximately 4 miles to the proposed cooling lake, e Water Quality The quality of the cooling water available to the Mo-l site should be acceptable. The cooling system will use sof twater makeup from, and return blowdown to, the Gulf.

e Flood Protection The plant grade should be raised to prevent flooding caused by hurricane surge and wave run up. Slope protection should be provided below this level.

Ecology e Environmentally Sensitive Considerations Flora Due to present Iond use, the floro of the site creo is in on early stage of succession and probably does not contain any environmentally sensitive species. Agricultural use and grazing has served to degrade the floro of the site. Narrow strips of marshland along drainages extend into the site from the south but comprise less than 1% of the total creo of the site.

Wooded corridors composing less than IS% of the total arco of the site follow drainages running northwest to southeast in the northern half of the site. Lower, wetter portions of the site are dominated by species such as MA-I-6 TERACORPORATION

gulf cordgross, marshhay cordgrass, brushy sea ox-eye, seashore saltgross, and shoregrass. Drier portions support sedges, Virginia wildrye, eastern gomogross, and various pospalums and panicums. Wooded creas contain small to medium trees of such species os pecon, live ook, water ook, cedor elm, Chinese tallow, willow, cottonwood, and ash with on understory of various shrubs and vines.

Founo Waterfowl habitat is scarce on the site, being limited to the bayous, where some open water exists, and plowed fields. Fish-eating birds are common.

The wooded corridors provide habitat for a higher diversity of plants and animals than the open grossionds. White-tailed deer and squirrel are important game animals associated with wooded habitats. Bobwhite quail and mourning doves frequent brushy forest edges and fence rows. One rare and endangered species, the alligator, is likely to reside in the creo. The peregrine falcon may occur in transit. Bold eagles are known to occur in Matagordo County; however, oppropriate nesting habitat (i.e., toll dead trees) does not appear to occur in Mo-1.

The region is also part of the range of the following endangered founo:

Eskimo Curlew Brown Pelican None of these are believed to inhabit the specific site.

The site does contain several small drainages leading to marshland adjacent to the southern boundary. The impact of modifying the quantity and quality of water entering these marshes would have to be assessed and could become licensing issues.

Demography The plant site falls outside the exclusion areas defined by the demographic criterio provided below.

e Cumulative population versus distance from the reactor wi!! not exceed:

0 - 5 miles s 30,000 persons l

0 - 20 miles s 500,000 persons 0 - 40 miles s 2,000,000 persons e Local population densities should not exceed 220 persons per square mile within 2 miles of the reactor.

e The exclusion zone distance from the reactor to the site boundary should be greater than or equal to that calculated for the specific reactor type and size and in any event should be greater than 0.5 miles.

MA-l-7 TERACORPORATION

Land Use e Existine Land Use The site is dominantly low coastal rangeland with some cultivation in higher creas. The land is fair agricultural land. The community of Sorgeant is located just to the west of the prospective site. Approximately 14 residences would be displaced by the prospective site. The San Bernard Wildlife Refuge is located approximately one mile to the east.

e Airspace -

The plant site lies outside of circraf t, prohibited, restricted, warning and clert areas, and airport control zones extending upwards from the surface.

e Mineral Reserves ,

No known mineral reserves are believed to exist within the plant site area.

e Oil and Gas Fields No known or developed oil and gas fields are believed to exist within the plant site area. No major underground pipelines are believed to be located within the site boundaries.

e Archeological & Historical Sites No known archeological or historical sites are believed to exist within the projected site boundaries. Further detailed archeological and historical investigation should confirm the initial investigations.

e Recreational Sites No recreational sites are known to exist within the plant site area. Some recreational homes are being developed to the west and south of the site.

e Proposed Land Use Plans The proposed site area does not conflict with any known land use plans.

Aesthetics

, Due to the flat topography of the site area, the reactor building complex and the l transmission lines will be visible from Texas Routes 60 and 36, the town cf Matagorda, the intracoastal Waterway and Matagorda Bay. The plant complex, heat dissipation system and transmission structures would be dominant features on the landscape.

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e Noise The noise created by construction and operation of the facility is not expected to cause undue impact in the site area. The make-up water intake structure, however, will have to be located and designed to mitigate the noise associated with the traveling screens.

If a mechanical draft coolino tower system is selected as the heat dissipation system, more detaileo analyses should be performec' to deter-mine the buffer zone required for abatement of fan noise.

Transportation e Motor Carrier Service and Access The Ma-l site could be served by carriers operating over Texas Highway 35 to the north and Texas Highway 36 to the east.

e Railroad Service and Access The Ma-l site could be served by a railroad spur extending from a borge facility located on the intracoastal Waterway just south of the site.

e Road and Highways The Ma-l site is located just one mile east of Form Road 457, which provides good access to Texas Highways 35 and 36.

e Waterways I

The Ma-l site could be served from the intracoastal Waterway by building a borge facility and constructing a railroad spur to the site.

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SITE MA-2 Type: Cooling Pond Site Using Salt Water Size: The cooling pond will inundate approximately 3,800 acres. The total land crea for the site will be somewhat dependent on the parcel size but should be a,boud,800 acres.

Location: The Ma-2 site is located in Matagorda County. It is 7 miles west of Sorgeant, IS miles southeast of Bay City, and 70 miles southwest of the center of Houston.

! Factors: The summary findings from application of the regional environmental protection considerations listed below are discussed on the following pages.

Regional Envircr. mental Protection Considerations Geology and. Seismology Meteorology Hydrology Ecology Demography Land Use Aesthetics Transportation l

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MA 1 l TERACORPORATION i

Geology and Seismoloov -

e Geologic Setting Age: Tertiary-Pleistocene Surficial Sediment Assemblage: Fluviol-deltoic System e Surface Material Types Mostly flood plain mud veneer meander belt sands ,

Some flood basin overbank mud and silt, prairie e Underlyino Deoosits Pleistocene: Beaumont Clay Formation Pleistocene age delta plain deposits; principally coloreous red, brown, or yellow clay that weathers bluish-gray or block; with logs, peat, fossil plants and some shells; represents interdistributary muds, abandoned channel-fill muds, fluvial overbank muds, and locally, boy, marsh, lagoon and backswamp muds. These deposits are chorocterized by low per-meability, high water-holding capacity, high compressibility, high to very high shrink-swell potential, poor drainage, low shear strength and high plasticity. The clays are interbedded with highly lenticular beds of gray to bluish-gray sandy clay, silt, and very fine-groined to medium grained sand representing levee, crevosse splay, distributary and locally, meanderbelt sond. These deposits exhibit low to moderate permeability, high to moderate water-holding copocity, moderate compressibility, moderate to low shrink-swell potential, moderate drainage, moderate to high shear strength and low plasticity. Meanderbelt sand sand may be under-consolidated and subjected to liquification.

Pleistocene: Lissie Formation Alternating beds of fine to coarse gray sand and thin lenses of fine gravel l interbedded with gray, brown, blue and red cloyey sand and sandy clay representing fine-grained meanderbeit sands, levee, crevasse splay, and distributary sands, and floodbosin mud over meanderbelt sand. Units are typically lenticular, but a few thicker clay strato may be traced over county-sized creas. These sands exhibit moderate to high permeability, moderate to good drainage, moderate water-holding copocity, moderate to low compressibility, low shrink-swell potential, high shear strength and low plasticity. Some sands may be under-compacted and subject to liquifico-tion. The sandy clays exhibit moderate permeability, moderate drainage, moderate to high shear strength, and moderate to low shrink-swell po-tential. A few thicker clays have high to very high shrink-swell potential, poor drainage, low shear strength and high plasticity.

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MA-2-2 TERACORPORATION 1

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e Geological Hazards Salt Domes The closest edge of on area defined as being influenced by salt dome activity is Hawkinsville,1-1/2 miles northwest of the site.

Seismicity The closest reported earthquake epicenter to the site recorded in historic time was:

Lot. Intensity Distance l Date (N) Lonf.

(W (MM) Location (MI.)

I/7/56 29.300 94.800 IV Galveston Island, 70 Texas Note that three earthquakes of intensity I, reported at Hobby Airport in Houston, Texas, in June 1969 have been recorded as possible sonic booms.

The unnamed events in 1910 north of Sealy, Texas and the Anderson event in 1914 near Sealy, Texas have not been substantiated by literature survey.

Lineors and Subsurface "Foult" Projections Two literature lineors cross near the site; one lies one mile north of the site and the other parallels the southern boundary of the cooling pond. One projection of a subsurface fault falls within the cooling pond, at the eastern edge, running north-south.

Confirmation of surface and subsurface geology, especially the surface location of subsurface faults and the location of subsurface faults and the l correlation with photo-linears, should be accomplished through a detailed exploration program, using various investigative techniques shown effec-tive in similar studies. This should include both remote and on-site

) investigative methods.

e Topography, Soil Stability and Construction Suitability The site is flat, with Canoe Bayou running northwest to southeast through l the site to join Live Ook Bayou that borders the site to the east. The soils have low to moderate slope stability and moderate to high shrink-swell.

Bearing capacity is low. Excavation will be easy, with no blasting required.

The clays are faily impermeable and therefore will not drain easily.

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Total recorded subsidence in this oreo is between 0.2 feet and 1.0 feet.

The site area is believed to be offected by natural regional coastal subsidence. Local groundwater withdrawal is thought to have had little effect on subsidence in this region, although a major increase in ground-water withdrawal in the site area would likely be accompanied by ground surface subsidence.

MA-2-3 TERACORPORATION

e Aquifers This site is located on a " conditionally acceptable" aquifer zone. A detailed on-site hydrogeologic investigation is needed to establish the conformance of this site to current requirements.

Meteorolnoy e Atmospheric Dispersion Evoluotion of preliminary information including wind speed, atmospheric stability and topography indicates that the short-term diffusion char-acteristics of the site are equal to or better than the diffusion chor-acteristics of the NRC models appearing in the Regulatory Guides. It also ,

appears that good annual overage diffusion chorocteristics exist and are such that additional engineering features designed to limit fission product release should not be required.

e Tornado and Extreme Winds All of the sites under consideration lie within Design Basis Tornado Region I.

General Design Criteria 2, " Design Boses for Protection Against Natural Phenomeno" of Appendix A to 10 CFR 50, " Licensing of Production Facility", requires that structure, systems and com-ponents important to safety be designed to withstand the effects of natural phenomeno such as tornadoes without loss of capobility of their safety functions. A design basis tornado, acceptable to the Regulatory Stoff, has been specified in Regulatory Guide 1.76. The requirements are shown in Table I below.

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TABLEI DESIGN BASIS TORNADO CHARACTERISTICS

! (from Regulatory Guide 1.76)

Region I ll 111 Maximum Wind Speed (mph) 360 300 240 Rotational Speed (mph) 290 240 190 Translational Speed (mph)

Maximum 70 60 50 b

Minimum 5 5 5 Radius of Maximum Rotational Speed (ft) 150 150 150 Pressure Drop (psi) 3.0 2.25 1.5 Rote of Pressure Drop (psi /sec) 2.0 1.2 0.6 The maximum wind speed is the sum of the rotational speed component and the maximum translational speed component.

b l The minimum translational speed, which allows maximum transit time of the tornado across exposed plant features, is to be used whenever low travel speeds (maximum transit time) are a limiting factor in design of the ultimate heat sink. The ultimate heat sink is that complex of water sources, including ossociated retaining structures, and any canals or conduits connecting the sources with, but not including, the intake struc-tures of nuclear reactor units. Regulatory Guide 1.27 (Sofety Guide 27),

" Ultimate Heat Sink," describes a basis that may be used to implement General Design Criterion 44 of Appendix A to 10 CFR Part 50 with regard to the ultimate heat sink.

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l MA-2-5 TERACORPORATION

e Foocino and Icing -

Cooling pond or tower fogging tendencies are such that when the air is colder then the surface water temperatures, shallow fogs may occur which, in the cose of the Mo-2 site, could cause reduced visibility on local form to market roads.

e Wind Chorocteristics _

The mean wind speed for the Mo-2 site is 10.8 mph. The prevailing wind direction is from the south - southeast, which does not place any major -

population center on the streamline of prevailing winds for gaseous effluent releases.

Hydrology e Availability of Coolina Water Water necessary to meet the makeup requirements for a 2,600 MWe nuclear station (LWR) would be taken from the Gulf.

For the Mo-2 site, it would be necessary to pump the water opproximately 10 miles to the proposed cooling icke.

e Water Quality The quality of the cooling water available at the Mo-2 site should be acceptable. Because the cooling system will use soltwater makeup from and return blowdown to the Gulf.

e Flood Protection The plant grade should be raised to prevent flooding caused by hurricane surge and wave run up. Slope protection should be provided below this level.

Ecology e Environmentally Sensitive Considerations Floro Native grosses on the open rongeland include little bluestem, indiongross, low panicum, big bluestem, and switchgross. Introduced Bermudogross also occurs. Common trees of the bayou forest are live ook, pecon, cedor elm, willow, ash, and cottonwood.

Due to present land use, the floro of the site crea is in on early stage of succession and probably does not contain any environmentally sensitive species.

MA-2-6 TERACORPORATION l

Fauna Habitat for waterfowl and fish-eating birds is limited to the marshes and bayous. Deer, squirrels, and furbearers (e.g. raccoon, fox, opossum) inhabit the bayou forest. Alligators may occur in the marshes and bayous.

Peregrine falcons are infrequent transients. It is not known if or to what extent bald eagles may use the creo. The region is also part of the range of the following endangered fauna:

Eskimo Curlew Brown Pelican Neither of these are believed to inhabit the specific site.

The site does contain several small drainages leading to marshland adjacent to the southern and eastern boundaries. The impact of modifying the quantity and quality of water entering these marshes would have to be assessed and could become licensing issues.

Demography The plant site falls outside the exclusion areas defined by the demographic criteria provided below, o Cumulative population versus distance from the reactor will not exceed:

0 - 5 miles s 30,000 persons 0 - 20 miles s 500,000 persens t

0 - 40 miles s 2,000,000 persons i

e Local population densities should not exceed 220 persons per square mile l within 2 miles of the reactor.

1 e The exclusion zone distance from the reactor to the site boundary should be greater than or equal to that calculated for the specific reactor type and size and in any event should not be greater than 0.5 miles.

Land Use l e Existing Land Use 1

The Ma-2 site consists rnainly of open grazing land (about 90%) with some woodland and freshwater marshes associated with Live Ook Bayou which l lies to the east. The land is fcir agricultural land. The community of Sargeant is located to the east of the prospective site. Approximately 5 residences are located within the prospective site boundaries.

MA-2-7 TERACORPCRATION

e Airspace The plant site outside aircraf t, prohibited, restricted, warning and alert areas, and airport control zones extending upwards from the surface.

e Mineral Reserves No known mineral reserves are believed to exist within the plant site creo. -

e Oil and Cos Fields

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No known or developed oil and gas fields are believed .to exist within the plant site creo. No major underground pipelines are believed to be located within the site boundaries.

e Archeological & Historical Sites i

No known orcheological or historical sites are believed to exist within the projected site boundaries. Further detailed archological and historical investigation should confirm the initial investigations. l e Recreational Sites No recreational sites are known to exist within the plant site creo.

e Proposed Land Use Plans ',

The proposed site crea does not conflict with any known land use plans.

Aesthetics Due to the flot topography of the site area, the reactor building complex and the transmission lines will be visible from Texas Route 60, the town of Motagorda, the intracoastal Waterway and Matagordo Bay. The plant heat complex, heat dissipation syt. tem and transmission structures would be dominant features on the landscape.

e Noise The noise created by construction and operation of the facility is not expected to cause undue impact in the site creo. The make-up water intake structure, however, will have to be located and designed to mitigate the noise associated with the traveling screens.

If a mechanical draft cooling tower system is selected as the heat dissipation system, more detailed onelyses should be performed to deter-mine the buffer zone required for abatement of fan noise.

MA-2-8 TERACORPORATION

Transportation e Motor Carrier Service and Access The Ma-2 site could be served by carriers operating over Texas Highway 60 to the west and Texas Highway 35 to the north, e Railroad Service and Access The Ma-2 site could be served by a railroad spur extending from the Gulf Colorado and Santa Fe which runs west of the site.

e Roads and Highways The Ma-2 site is located three miles from Form Road 521 which provides good access to Texas Highways 35 and 60.

e Waterways The Ma-2 site could be served from the intracoastai Waterway by building a borge facility and constructing a railroad spur to the site.

MA-2-9 TERACORPORATION

SITE MA-3 Type: Cooling Pond Site Using Salt Water Size: The cooling pond will inundate oporoximately 3,800 acres. The total land crea for the site will be somewhat dependent on the porcel size but should be about 4,800 acres.

Location: The Ma-3 site is located in Motagordo County. It is 9 miles northeast of Matagordo,13 miles south of Bay City, and 73 miles southwest of the center of Houston.

Factors: The summary findings from opplication of the regional environmental protection considerations listed below are discussed on the following pages.

Regional Environmental Protection Considerations Geology and Seismology Meteorology Hydrology -

Ecology Demography Land Use Aesthetics Transportation 1

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1 MA-3-1 TERA CORPORATION

Geology and Seismology e Geologic Setting Age: Modern Holocene -

Surficial Sediment Assemblage: Fluviol-deltoic System e Surface Material Types --

Mostly distributary, channel, and other fluvial sands and silts, including ievee and crevasse splay deposits.

Some coastal marsh, salt, brackish and fresh water. '

Some interdistributary silt and mud, includes locally, boy, lacustrine, and crevasse splay facies.  !

e Underlying Deposits Pleistocene: Beaumont Clay Formation ,

Pleistocene age delta plain deposits; principally calcareous red, brown, or yellow clay that weathers bluish-gray or block; with logs, peat, fossil i plants and some shells; represents interdistributary muds, abandoned channel-fill muds, fluvial overbank muds, and locally, boy, marsh, lagoon and backswamp muds. These deposits are characterized by low per-meability, high water-holding capacity, high compressibility, high to very high shrink-swell potential, poor drainoge, low shear strength and high plasticity. The clays are interbedded with highly lenticular beds of gray to bluish-gray sandy clay, silt, and very find-grained to medium grained sand 4 representing levee, crevasse splay, distributory and locally, meanderbeit sand. These deposits exhibit low to moderate permeability, high to moderate water-holding capacity, moderate compressibility, moderate to low shrink-swell potentici, modarote drainage, moderate to high shear strength and low platicity. Meanderbeit sand may be under-consolidated and subject to liquification.

Pleistocene: Lissie Formation Alternating beds of fine to coarse gray sand and thin lenses of fine gravel interbedded with gray, brown, blue and red cloyey sand and sandy clay representing fine-grained meanderbeit sands, and floodbosis mud over meanderbeit sand. Units are typically lenticular, but a few thicker clay strato may be traced over county-sized areas. These sands exhibit moderate to high permeability, moderate to good drainage, moderate water-holding capacity, moderate to low compressibility, low shrink-swell potential, high shear strength and low plasticity. Some sands may be under-compacted and subject to liquification. The sandy clays exhibit moderate permeability, moderate drainage, moderate to high shear strength, and moderate to low shrink-swell potential. A few thicker clays have high water-holding copacity, high compressibility, high to very high shrink-swell potential, poori drainage, low shear strength and high plos.

ticity.

MA-3-2 TERACORPORATION

e Geologic Hazards Salt Domes The closest edge of an oreo defined as being influenced by salt dome activity is Gulf Dome, southern edge of the coohng pond.

Seismicity The closest reported earthquake epicent to the site recorded in historic time was:

l Lot. Long. Intensity Distance Date (N) (W) (MM) Location (Mi.)

l/7/56 29.300 94.800 IV Galveston Island, 80 Texas Note that three earthquakes of intensity l, reported at Hobby Airport in Houston, Texas, in June 1969 have been recorded as possible sonic booms.

The unnamed events in 1910 north of Sealy, Texas and the Anderson event in 1914 near Sealy, Texas have not been substantiated by literature survey.

Linears and Subsurface " Fault" Projections No linears or subsurface fault projects cross the site. Three linears cross 1/2 mile north of the site, and projections of subsurface faults are plotted to fall around the site in all directions.

Confirmation of surface and subsurface geology, especially the surface location of subsurface faults and the correlation with photo-linears, should l be accomplished through a detailed exploration program, using various l investigative techniques shown effective in similar studies. This should include both remote and on-site investigative methods, o Topography, Soil Stability and Construction Suitability l The site is flat, with levees at the northeast and southwest ends and big Boggy Creek running southeast through the middle of the site. The soils i

have low to moderate slope stability and moderate to high shrink-swell.

Bearing capacity is low. Excavation will be easy, with no blasting required.

The clays are fairly impermeable and therefore will not drain easily.

e Subsidence i

! Total recorded subsidence in this area is between 0.2 feet and 1.0 feet.

l The site area is believed to be affected by natural regional coastal subsidence. Local groundwater withdrawal is thought to hcve had little effect on subsidence in this region, although a major increase in ground-l water withdrawal in the site area would likely be accompanied by ground surface subsidence.

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MA-3-3 l TERACORPORATION l

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-s e Acuifers This site is located on a "conditonally acceptable" aquifer zone. A detailed on-site hydrogeologic investigation investigation is needed to establish the conformance of this site to current requirements.

Meteorology e Atmosoberic Dispersion Evaluation of preliminary information including wind speed, atmospheric -

stability and topography indicates that the short-term diffusion chcr-acteristics of the site are equal to or better than the diffusion chorocter-istics of the NRC models appearing in the Regulatory Guides. It also appears that good annual overage diffusion chorocteristics exist and are such that additional engineering features designed to limit fission product release should not be released.

e Tornado and Extreme Winds All of the sites under consideration lie within Design Basis Tornado Region I.

General Design Criteria 2, " Design Bases for Protection Against Natural Phenomena" of Appendix A to 10 CFR 50, '1 icensing of Production Facility", requires that structure, systems and com-ponents important to safety be designed to withstand the effects of natural phenomena such as tornadoes without loss of capability of their safety functions. A design basis tornado, acceptable to the Regulatory Stoff, has been specified in Regulatory Guide 1.76. The requirements are shown in Table I below.

1 1

1 MA-3-4 TERA CORPOl[ATION

J -

TABLEI DESIGN BASIS TORNADO CHARACTERISTICS (from Regulatory Guide 1.76)

Region i 11 111 Maximum Wind Speed (mph)o 360 300 240 Rotational Speed (mph) 290 240 190 Translational Speed (mph)

Maximum 70 60 50 b

Minimum 5 5 5 Radius of Maximum Rotational Speed (f t) 150 150 150 Pressure Drop (psi) 3.0 2.25 1.5 Rote of Pressure Drop (psi /sec) 2.0 1.2 0.6 The maximum wind speed is the sum of the rotational speed component and the maximum translational speed component.

b The minimum translational speed, which allows maximum transit time of the tornado across exposed plant features, is to be used whenever low travel speeds (maximum transit time) are a limiting factor in design of the ultimate heat sink. The ultimate heat sink is that complex of water sources, including associated retaining structures, and any canals or I conduits connecting the sources with, but not including, the intake struc-l tures of nuclear reactor units. Regulatory Guide 1.27 (Sofety Guide 27),

" Ultimate Heat Sink," describes a basis that may be ~used to implement General Design Criterion 44 of Appendix A to 10 CFR Part 50 with regard l to the ultimate heat sink.

1 1

i l

l MA-3-5 l TERA CORPORATION

i e Focaina and Icing Cooling pond or tower fogging tendencies are such that when the air is colder than the surface water temperatures, shallow fogs may occur which, in the cose of the Mo-3 site, could cause reduced visibility on Texas Route i 60, the Intercoastal Waterway, and on local form to market roads.

e Wind Characteristics -

The mean wind speed for the Ma-3 site is 10.7 mph. The prevailing wind direction is from the south - southeast, which does not place any major population center on the streamline of prevailing winds for gaseous effluent releases.

Hydrology e Availability of Cooling Water Water necessory to meet the makeup requirements for a 2,600 MWe nuclear station (LWR) would be taken from the Gulf.

For the Mo-3 site, it would be necessary to pump the water approximately 15 miles to the proposed cooling lake.

e Water Quality The quality of the cooling water available at the Mo-3 site should be acceptable. The cooling system will use soltwater makeup from, and return blowdown, to the Gulf.

e Flood Protection The plant grade should be raised to prevent flooding caused by hurricane surge and wave run up. Slope protection should be provided below this level.

Ecology e Environmentally Sensitive Considerations Flora Rangeland vegetation on the site includes native gross such as little bluestem, indiongrass, switchgross, eastern gomogross, big bluestem, and various paspalums, as well as introduced Bermudogross. Woody vegetation is mostly hockberry, live ook, Chinese tallow, baccharis, and greenbrior.

Due to present land use, the floro of the site area is in an early stage of succession and probobly does not contain on environmentally sensitive species. Agricultural use and grazing has served to degrade the floro of the site.

MA-3-6 TERACORPORATION

l I

Fauno )

Waterfowl and fish-eating bird habitat is limited to the bayous, canals, and rice fields. Good marsh habitat with extensive open water exists southeast of the site along Big Boggy Creek. Quail and doves frequent the brushy canal banks and fence rows. Alligators may inhabit the canals and bayous, while peregrine folcons may traverse the site during the fall and spring migration. The presence of the bald eagle is possible, although no breeding sites were observed. l The region is also port of the range of the following endangered founo: j Eskimo Curlew Brown Pelican Neither of these are believed to inhabit the specific site.

The site does contain several small drainages le.oding to marshlands adjacent to the southeastern boundary. The impact of modifying the quantity and quality of water entering these marshes would have to be ossessed and could become licensing issues.

Demography The plant site falls outside the exclusion areas defined by the demographic criteria provided below.

e Cumulative population versus distance from the reactor will not exceed:

0 - 50 miles s 30,000 persons 0 - 20 miles s 500,000 persons 0 - 40 miles s 2,000,000 persons e Local population densities should not exceed 220 persons per square mile within 2 miles of the reactor.

t e The exclusion zone distance from the reactor to the site boundary should be greater than or equal to that calculated for the specific reactor type and size and in any event should not be greater than 0.5 miles.

Land Use

e Existing Land Use The Ma-3 site is predominantly open rangeland and rice farmland. Woody vegetation occurs only along fence rows, irrigation canals, and a short stretch of Big Boggy Creek. The land is fair agricultural land. The l community of Wodaworth is located to the northwest of the prospective

( site. The community of Guif Hill is located to the southwest of the l prospective site. Approximately lI residences are located within the site boundaries.

MA-3-7 TERACORPORATION l

w e - v-y+-p e t--e, - +--s- m- n- r e+, a

e Airspace .

The plant site lies outside aircraf t, prohibited, restricted, warning and alert areas, and airport control zones extending upwards from the surface.

e Mineral Reserves No k'nown mineral reserves are believed to exist within the plant site creo.

. Oil and Gas Fields No known or developed oil and gas fields are believed to exist within the plant site area. Several pipelines cross the proposed cooling pond.

e Archeological & Historical Sites No known archeological or historical sites are believed to exist within the projected site boundaries. Further detailed archeological and h1 torical investigation should coafirm the initial investigations.

e Recreational Sites -

No recreational sites are known to exist within the plant site area. ,

e Proposed Land Use Plans The proposed site crea does not conflict with any known land use plans.

Aesthetics Due to the flat topography of the site area, the reactor building complex and the transmission lines will be visible from Texas Routes 60 and 36, the town of Matagorda, the intracoastal Waterway, and Matagorda Bay. The plant complex, heat dissipation system and transmission structures would be dominant features on the landscape.

e Noise The noise created 1struction and operation of the facility is not expected to cause un,

• impact in the site area. The make-up water intake structure, however, will have to be located and designed to mitigate the noise associated with the traveling screens.

1 If a mechanical draft cooling tower system is selected as the heat l dissipation system, more detaileo analyses should be performed to deter-mine the buffer zone required for abatement of fan noise.

i l

l

MA-3-8

! TERA CORPORATION

Transportation e Motor Carrier Service and Access The Ma-3 site could be served by carriers aperating over Texas Highway 60 to the west, and Texas Highway 35 to the north.

e Railroad Service and Access The Ma-3 site could be served by a railroad spur extending from the Gulf Colorado and Santa Fe which runs west of the site.

e Roads and Highways The Ma-3 site is located two miles from Form Road 521, which provides good access to Texas Highways 35 and 60.

e Waterways The Ma-3 site could be served from the intracoastal Waterway by building a borge facility and constructing a railroad spur to the site.

l l

MA-3-9 TERACORPORATION L -.

l 1

1 3.S RESULTS  ;

1 The results of the candidate site evoluations are presented on the Candidate Site Evaluation Matrix, Figure 3.S-1, and are shown in Table 3.5-1.

Of the eight sites compared, Au-l (Allens Creek) was found to be the most economic site, followed by Ma-3 and Bz-l as second and third, respectively.

From on environmental and licensing standpoint, Au-l ranked first, with Mo-l and Ma-3 second and third, respectively. The combined ranking showed Au-l to be first, with Ma-3 second and Ma-l third.

Sensitivity analyses were performed on both the economic, and environmental and licensing evaluations to determine if any factors needed odditional consider-ation or evaluation. These analyses showed that the Au-l site (Allens Creek) continued to receive the highest rating when logical changes in the evaluation factors were made. Based on this evaluation TERA has concluded that none of the alternative sites is obviously superior to the Au-l site.

The following sections describe the site evaluation methods used in making these rankings, and the results of sensitivity analyses performed by varying certain weighting factors.

3.S.I SITE EVALUATION METHODS During the site selection process, Site Evaluation Factors (Appendix A) were used to rank the candidate sites and to identify the prime site. Site Evoluotion Factors, which are a more detailed refinement of the regional screening factors, were developed for the following areas:

l l e Economics e Geology e Meteorology e Hydrology e Demography e Land Use 3-13 TERACORPORATION

a TABLE 3.5-1 j CAbOIDATE SITE RAfEING

SUMMARY

l Environmentol/ Licensing Site Economic Ranking Ranking Overall Ranking Awl i I I Bz-l 3 8 7 CNI 5 6 4 Je-2 8 7 8 Jo3 6 5 5 7 Mel 4 2 3 Mo-2 7 4 5 M&3 2 3 2 l

l -

l l

3-14 TERA CORPORATION

e Aesthetics e Transportation The Candidate Site Evoluotion Matrix, Figure 3.5-1, was prepared using two types of evaluation methods to rate each condidate site based upon the above factors. One was a subjective or qualitative evaluation using the written descriptions and the color coded circles to depict the different factors. The other factor was a numerical evcluation system computed on a zero-to-five scale. The following sections describe these methods.

3.5.1.1 SUBJECTIVE EVALUATION METHOD The Subjective Evaluation Method is based upon the written site descriptions presented in the matrix. As such, the method provides a qualitative assessment of both the economic evaluations factors and the environmental and licensing factors. Based upon this subjective assessment, color coded circles are used to represent the ratings of the various factors. This subjective method provides a means for rating the intangible or non-quantifiable features of each site. On the matrix, green circles represent a most desirable rating; half green circles depict a favorable rating; white circles indicate an acceptable rating; half black circles show an odequate rating; and black circles emphasize a least desirable rating.

The block circles emphasize potentially significant economic consequences or environmental and licensing issues for a certain site.

3.5.l.2 NUMERICAL EVALUATION METHOD The Numerical Evaluation Method is based upon an assessment of the economic, l environmental and licensing evaluation factors. The method involves rating each factor using a zero-to-five scale, where zero is least desirable and five is most desirable.

For each of the factors, an evaluation is mode of relevant characteristics to establish the appropriate numerical rating. Appendix A, Site Evaluation Factors, provides the definitions for the rating system.

3-17 TERACORPORATION

5 To account for the relative importance of each of the factors, the weights are developed, as illustrated below:

Economic weighting factor .5 Geology weighting factor .I Meteorology weighting factor .025 Hydrology weighting factor .05 Ecology weighting factor .!

Demography weighting factor .05 Land Use weighting factor .I Aesthetics weighting factor .025 Transportation weighting factor .05 Combined weignting factor 1.0 During the evaluation, the numerical rating given to each category for each site is multiplied by the appropriate weighting factor. The overall site rating number is obtained by totaling the various categories for each site. The sites with the highest total would naturally be the most desirable.

Appendix A, Site Evaluation Factors, describes the rating systems for each of the above factors.

3.5.2 SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS Sensitivity analyses were conducted both on the site rankings presented on the Site Evaluation Matrix and the economic evaluation discussed in Section 3.3 to determine the significance of parameter variation.

3.5.2.1 WEIGHTING FACTOR SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS A sensitivity analysis was conducted to determine the effects on condidate site rankings of varying the weighting factors utilized in the Site Evaluation Matrix over a range of values. The following four cases were analyzed and the results are presented in Table 3.5-2 for the condidate sites.

TERA CORPORATION

l TABLE 3.5-2 ECONOMIC abo ENVIRONMENTAL APO Li NSING WEIGHTING FACTOR SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS FOR CAPOIDATE SITE RAFEINGS RANKING Site Base Case I Case 2 Case 3 Case 4 AU-l i I I I I MA-3 2 2 2 2 2 MA-1 3 3 3 4 3 CH-l 4 4 5 3 6 JE-3 5 6 6 6 4 MA-2 5 7 4 5 5 BZ-1 7 5 8 7 7 JE-2 8 8 7 8 8 1

3-19 TERACORPORATION

e Scse Case -

Economic weighting factor .5 Geology .10 Meteorology weighting factor .025 Hydrology weighting factor .05 -

Ecology weighting factor .10 .

Demography weighting foetor .05 Lcnd Use weighting fcctor .10 Aesthetics weighting factor .025 Transoortation weighting factor .05 Total Environmental end Licensing weighting fcctor .5 Combined weighting factor 1.0 e Ccse i Economic weighting factor increased by 40% to .7 Environmental end Licensing weighting factor decreased by 40% to .3 Combined weighting factor 1.0 e Case 2 Economic weighting fcctor decrecsed by 40% to .3 Environmentcl and Licensing weighting factor increased by 40% to .7 Combined weighting fcetor 1.0 e Case 3 Economic weighting factor decreased by 20% to 4 Environmental end Licensing weighting fcetor increcsed 20% by increasing the Ecology weighting factor 100% .6 Combined weighting factor 1.0 3-20 .

IF<A CCRCCRATCN

e Case 4 Economic weighting factor decreased by 20% to .4 Environmental and Licensing weighting factor increased 20% by increasing the Hydiclogy weighting factor 100% .6 Combined weighting factor 1.0 The sensitivity analysis results presented above demonstrate that Au-l (Allens Creek) remains the highest ranked site and is insensitive to 40% chang'es in Economic, Environmental and Licensing weighting factors.

3.5.2.2 ECONOMIC EVALUATION SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS The results of the economic study are shown in Tables 3.S-3 through 3.S-11.

These tables include the results of a sensitivity analysis to determine the effects on the condidate site economic ranking of varying individual cost sources. The following cases were analyzed:

Base Case - Economic ranking based on an annualized dif-ferential cost in mills /kw-br which includes a ceoacity penalty.

e Casei - Economic ranking with 20% decrease in Heat Dissipation System Cost Source.

e Case 2 - Economic ranking with 20% increase in Heat Dissipitatior. System Cost Source.

e Case 3 - Economic ranking with 20% decrease in Trans-mission System Cost Source.

e Case 4 - Economic ranking with 20% increase in Trans-mission System Cost Source.

. Case S - Economic ranking with 20% decrease in Water Transport System Cost Source.

e Case 6 - Economic ranking with 20% increase in Water Transport System Cost Source.

e Case 7 - Economic ranking with 20% decrease in Trans-portation and Site Development Cost Source.

e Case 8 - Economic ranking with 20% increase in Trans-l portation and Site Development Cost Source.

l 3-21 TERACORPORATION

i TABLE 3.5-3 SITE RANKING

SUMMARY

FOR CASES 1 THIOUGH 8 Base Case i Case 2 Case 3 Case 4 Case 5 Case 6 Case 7 Case 8 Site Order Order Order Order Order Order Order Order Order AU-l l l l l l l l l l MA-3 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 2 BZ-1 3 3 4 4 3 5 2 2 4 ,

MA-1 4 4 3 3 5 4 4 4 3 CH-l 5 5 5 5 4 3 5 5 5 JE-3 6 6 7 7 6 7 6 6 7 MA-2 7 7 6 6 7 6 7 7 6 JE-2 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 l

l l

l l TERA CORPORATION

TABLE 3.5-4 CASEI ECONOMIC RAPEING VARIATION OF SOURCES WAT DISSIPATION SYSTEM VARIATION = -20%

BASE REVISED BASE DIFFERENTIAL REVISED DIFFERENTIAL ORDER (MILLS /KW-HR) SITE ORDER (MILLS /KW-HR) l BASE AU-1 I BASE 2 .104 MA-3 2 .115 3 .138 BZ-1 3 .128 4 .I45 MA-1 4 .149 5 .160 CH-l 5 .171 6 .213 JE-3 6 .206 7 .217 MA-2 7 .217 8 .257 JE-2 8 .238 l

l 3-23 TERACORPORATION w .- . _ - . . - - .

TABLE 3.5-S CASE 2 ECONOMIC RANKING VARIATION OF SOURCES l-EAT DISSIPATION SYSTEM VARIATION = +20%

BASE REVISED BASE DIFFERENTIAL REVISED DIFFERENTIAL ORDER (MILLS /KW-HR) SITE ORDER (MILLS /KW-HR) i BASE AU-l i BASE 2 .104 MA-3 2 .094 3 .138 BZ-1 3 .148 4 .145 MA-1 5 .146 5 .160 CH-1 4 .150 6 .213 JE-3 6 .220 7 .217 MA-2 7 .218 8 .257 JE-2 8 .277 3-24 TERACORPORATION

TABLE 3.5-6 CASE 3 ECONOMIC RANKING VARIATION OF SOURCES TRANSMISSION SYSTEM VARIATION = -20%

BASE REVISED BASE DIFFERENTIAL REVISED DIFFERENTIAL ORDER (MILLS /KW-HR) SITE ORDER (MILLS /KW-HR) 1 BASE AU-1 I BASE 2 .104 MA-3 2 .066 3 .138 BZ-1 4 .131 4 .145 MA-1 3 .118 5 .160 CH-l 5 .152 6 .213 JE-3 7 .191 7 .217- MA-2 6 .187 i 8 .257 JE-2 8 .220 1

l 3-25 I

TERACORPORATION

TABLE 3.5-7 -

CASE 4 ECONOMIC RANKING VARIATION OF SOURCES TRANSMISSION SYSTEM VARIATION = +20%

BASE REVISED BASE DIFFERENTIAL REVISED DIFFERENTIAL

ORDER (MILLS /KW-HR) SITE ORDER (MILLS /KW-HR) i BASE AU-l i BASE 2 .104 MA-3 2 .144 3 .l38 BZ-1 3 .145 4 .145 MA-l 5 .178 5 .160 CH-l 4 .170 6 .213 JE-3 6 .236 7 .217 MA-2 7 .249 8 .257 JE-2 8 .296 l

l 3-26 TERACORPORATION

TABLE 3.5-8 CASE 5 ECONOMIC RAl* LNG VARIATION OF SOURCES WATER TRANSPORT SYSTEM VARIATION = -20%

BASE REVISED BASE DIFFERENTIAL REVISED DIFFERENTIAL ORDER (MILLS /KW-HR) SITE ORDER (MILLS /KW-HR) i BASE AU-l l BASE 2 .104 MA-3 2 .084 3 .138 BZ-i 5 .152 4 .145 MA-l 4 .146 5 .160 CH-1 3 .123 6 .213 JE-3 7 .208 7 .217 MA-2 6 .207 8 .257 JE-2 8 .262 l

l l

l l

l 3-27 TERACORPORATION

TABLE 3.5-9 CASE 6 ECONOMIC RAP 4(ING VARIATION OF SOURCES WATER TRANSPORT SYSTEM VARIATION = +20%

BASE . REVISED -

BASE DIFFERENTIAL REVISED DIFFERENTIAL ORDER (MILLS /KW-HR) SITE ORDER (MILLS /KW-HR) l BASE AU-l i BASE 2 .104 MA-3 3 .126 3 .138 BZ-1 2 .125 4 .145 MA-l 4 .149 5 .160 CH-l 5 .199 6 .213 JE-3 6 .219 7 .217 MA-2 7 .229 8 .257 JE-2 8 .254 l

l l

l 3-28 TERA CORPORATION i

- - . . , ,a , --

TABLE 3.5-10 CASE 7 ECONOMIC RAIEING VARIATION OF SOURCES TRANSPORTATION AND SITE DEVELOPMENT VARIATION = -20%

BASE REVISED BASE DIFFERENTIAL REVISED DIFFERENTIAL ORDER (MILLS /KW-HR) SITE ORDER (MILLS /KW-HR) l BASE AU-l i BASE 2 .104 MA-3 3 .136 3 .138 BZ-1 2 .123 4 .145 MA-1 4 .155 5 .160 CH-l 5 .165 6 .213 JE-3 6 .211 7 .217 MA-2 7 .222 l 8 .257 JE-2 8 .265

{

3-29 TERACORPORATION l - _ _

TABLE 3.5-11 CASE 8 ECONOMIC RAPEING VARIATION OF SOURCES TRANSPORTATION APO SITE DEVELOPMENT VARIATION = +20%

BASE REVISED BASE DIFFERENTIAL REVISED DIFFERENTIAL ORDER (MILLS /KW-HR) SITE ORDER (MILLS /KW-HJR l BASE AU-l i BASE 2 .104 MA-3 2 .073

.138 BZ-1 4 .153 3

4 .145 MA-l 3 .141 5 .160 CH-1 5 .156 6 .213 JE-3 7 .216 7 .217 MA-2 6 .214 8 .257 JE-2 8 .251 l

l 3-30 TERACORPORATION

4.0 REFERENCES

SECTION 2.0 2-1 " Seismic and Geological Siting Criteria for Nuclear Power Plants," Code of Federal Regulations, Title 10, Port 100, Appendix A.

2-2 " Standard Format and Content of Safety Analysis Reports for Nuclear Power Plants (Revision 1)" Regulatory Guide 1.70, (National Regulatory Commission).

2-3 " General Site Suitability Criteria for Nuclear Power Stations," Regulatory Guide 4.7, (National Regulatory Commission, Draft dated September, T974T.

2-4 C. V. Proctor, Surface Geology, Upper Texas Coastal Plain, Environmental Geology of the Upper Texas Coastal Plain, (University of Texas, Austin,1974), Ph.D. dissertation in preparation.

2-S W. L. Fisher and others, Environmental Geologic Atlas of the Texas Coastal Zone - Boy City - Freeport Area, (University of Texos, Austin, Bureau of Economic Geology)in press.

2-6 C. Acholabbuti, Environmental Geology of the Columbus - Inez Area, Texas, (University of Texas, Austin, 1972), unpublished Ph.D.

dissertation.

l 2-7 W. L. Fisher, J. H. McGowen, L. F. E;rown, Jr., and C. G. Groot, Environmental Geologic Atlas of the Texas Coastal Zone - Galveston

- Houston Area, (University of Texas, Austin, Bureau of Economic Geology,1972), 9lp.

i 2-8 L. F. Brown, Jr., R. A. Morton, J. H. McGowan, C. W. Kreitler, and

) W. L. Fisher, Natural Hazards of the Texas Coastal Zone, (University of Texas, Austin, Bureau of Economic Geology, 1974),13 p.

l 2-9 C. W. Kreitler, Land Surface Subsidence and Active Faulting in the Texas Coastal Zone, Testimony presented to Special Interim Committee on Water Supply and Waste Disposal in Metropolitan Area, Texas House of Representatives, 1974,10 p.

2-10 D. C. Von Sicien, The Houston Fault Problem, Proceedings, 3rd Annual Meeting, Texas Section, American institute Professional Geologists, I 967, p. 9-29.

2-1l C. W. Kreitler, "Lineations and Active Faulting in the Houston - Galveston Area of Subsidence," Abstracts with Programs, Geological Society of America, South - Centrol Section, 7 (2), (1975), p.180.

2-12 V. E. Barnes, project director, Geologic Atlas of Texos, Beaumont Sheet, (University of Texas, custin, bureau of Economic Geology,1968).

4-1 TERACORPORATION

2-13 V. E. Barnes, project director, Geologic Atlas of Texas, Austin Sheet, (University of Texas, custin, Bureau of Economic Geology,1974).

2-14 S. P. Ellison, Jr., Sulfur in Texas, Handbook No. 2, (University of Texas, Austin, Bureau of Economic Geology, 1971),48 p.

2-15 R. A. Morton, " Gulf Shoreline Suffers Erosion," Austin American States-man, (September 27,1974).

2-16 R. S. Kier, and d. L. bell, "Quantification of Resource copobility Units, Corpus Christi Area, Texas," Approaches to Environmental Geology, E. G. Wermund, ed., (University of Texas, Austin, Bureau of Economic Geology, Report No. 81,1974), p.152-183.

i l 2-17 R. K. Gabrysch, and C. W. Bonnet, Land Subsidience in the Houston

-Golveston Region, Texas, (U.S. Geologic Survey Open-File Report, 1974), 23 p.

2-18 B. R. Bodine, Hurricane Surge Frequency Estimated for the Gulf Coast of Texas, Technical Memorando 26 , (U.S. Army Corps cf Engineers, Coastal Wneering Research Center ), 31 p.

2-19 National Regulatory Commission, " Design Basis Floods for Nuclear Power Plants," Rrequietory Guide 1.59.

2-20 " Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972," Public Low 92-500,92nd Congress, Senate Bill 2770, (October 1972).

2-21 " Effluent Guidelines and Standards for Steam Electric Power Generating Point Source Category," Code of Federal Regulations, Title 40, Port 423, (Federal Register 39 (196), October 1974).

2-22 " Texas Water Ouclity Board Water Quality Standards, Approved October 25, 1973," State Water Laws" Environmental Reoorter, (Bureau of National Affairs), p. 921:1001.

l 2 23 W. F. Ble:r, "The Biotic Provinces of Texas," Texas Journal of Science, 2 (1959), p. 93-l 17. '

1 l 2-24 F. W. Could, Texas Plants: A Checklist and Ecological Summary, (Texas A&M University, College Station,1969).

2-25 Threatened Wildlife of the United States,(United States Department of the interior, Bureau of Sports Fisheries and Wildlife, Washington, D.C.,

l 1973).

2-26 Reculations for Takino, Possession, Transportation, Exportation, Process-ino, Sole or Offer for Sole, or Shipment of Endonnered Fish or Wildlife Threatened With Extinction in Texas, (Texas Parks and wildlif e Department,1974).

2-27 G. G. Roun and F. R. Gehlbach, "Amphiboins and Reptiles in Texas," Dollos Museum of Natural History Bulletin, 2, (1972).

4-2 TERACORPORATION

i 1

1 2-28 L. E. Brown, Bufo houstonensis, " Catagloeu of American Amphibians and

' Reptiles, Report No. 70.1-70.4.

2-29 R. Conant, A Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians, (Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston,1958). l N

2-30 C. Frentress, Texas Peregrine Falcon Mlaration Survey - 1973 Report, Paper presented to 9th Conference of the Wildlife Society - Texas l Chapter, Laredo, Texas (1974).

2-31 J. N. Enderson and D. D. Berger, " Chlorinated Hydrocarbon Residues in Peregrines and Their Prey Species from Northern Condad," Condor 70 (1968), p.149-153.

2-32 J. E. Werler, " Miscellaneous Notes on Eggs and Young of Texan and Mexican Reptiles," Zoologica 36 (1951), p. 37-48.

2-33 L. J. Blus, R. G. Heath, G. D. Gish, A. A. Belisle, and R. M. Prouty,

" Eggshell Thinning in the Brown Pelican: Implications of DDE, "

Bioscience 21 (1971), p.1213 - 1215.

2-34 V. W. Lehmann, The Attwater's Prairie Chicken, Current Status and Restoration Opportunities Transaction,33rd North American Wildlife and Natural Resource Conference,1968, p. 398-407.

2-35 , and R. G. MAuermann, " Status of Attwater's Prairie Chicken,"

Journal of Wildlife Management 27 (1963), p. 713-725.

? T. Peterson, A Field Guide to the Birds of Texas, (Houghton Mifflin Co.,

Boston,1963).

2-37 W. B. Davis, The Mammals of Texas, Bulletin 41, (Texas Parks and Wildlife Department,1966).

2-38 J. A. Jackson, "THe Evaluation, Taxonomy, Distribution, Past Populations, and Current Status of the Red-Cockaded Woodpecker," The Ecolooy l and Monocement of the Red-Cockaded Woodpecker, Proceedings of l Symposium, Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, Folkston, georgio, 1971.

2-39 Red Cockaded Woodpecker Study, Federal Aid Project No. W-80-R-16, Job.

No.10, (Texas Parks and Wildlife Department,1973).

2-40 G. A. Riley and R. T. McBride, A Survey of the Red Wolf (Canis rufus),

USDI Special Science Report - Wildlife No.162, (Washington, D. C.,

I972).

2-41 J. L. Paradisco and R. M. Nowak, A Report on the Toxonomic Status and Distribution of the Red Wolf, USDI 5pecial Report - Wildlife No.145, (Washington, D. C.,1971).

2-42 J. C. Smith, A Survey of the Bold Eagle and Osprey in Texas, 1971-1973, Paper presented to 9th Conference of the Wildlife Society - Texas Chapter, Laredo, Texas, (1974).

4-3 TERACORPORATION

,. , , .-s- . - , - - , . . , . - . . .

2-43 Clark Hubbs, "Distributional Potterns of Texas Freshwater Fishes," South-western Naturalist 2 (1957), p.89-104.

2-44 Preliminary List of Rare and Endangered Amphibians and Reptiles of Texas, (Texas Organization for Endangered Species, Temple, Texas, -

June 1973).

2 45 Texas Londings, Annual Summary, 1972, (United States department of .

Commerce, Washington, D. C.,19/Z).  ;

2-46 J. P. Lindusko, ed., Waterfowl Tomorrow, (U. S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D. C.,1964). -

2-47 Rare and Endangered Plants Native to Texos, (Rare Plant Study Center, University of Texas, Austin, Texas, Spring,1974).

2-48 C. A. McLeod, The Big Thicket Forest of Eastern Texas, (San Houston ,

State University, Huntsville,19/z).

2-49 V. L. Cory and H. B. Parks, Biological Survey of the East Texas Big Thicket Area,(Sponsored by the Texas Academy of Sciences,1936). ] ;

2-50 Regional Atlas, (Houston - Galveston Area Council,1972). 1 2-51 Parks - Recreation and Open Space, (Houston - Galveston Area Council, 1971).

2-52 Parks, Open Space and Recreational Plan for the South East Region: An initial Element, (South East Texas Regional Planning Commission, 1972).

2-53 Brozos Valley Development Council Comprehensive Planning: Regional Plannino 4, (Brazos Valley Development Council,1973).

2-54 Regional Plan,(Deep Ece Texas Development Council,1972).

2-55 Parks /Open-Space Plan 1973-1990, (Deep East texas Development Council, 1973).

2-56 Environmental Geologic Atlas of the Texas Coastal Zone - Beaumont-Port Arthur Area, (University of Texas, austin, Bureau of Economic Geology,1973).

2-57 Environmental Geologic Atlas of the Texas Coastal Zone - Galveston-Houston Area, (University of Texas, austin, Bureau of economic Geology,1972).

2-58 District Permit Maps, (Texas Highway Department,1973).

l 2-59 Guide to Official Texas Historical Markers, (Texas State Historical Survey Committee,1971).

2-60 Texas Independence Trail Map, (Texas Highway Department).

4-4 TERACORPORATION

2-61 Texas Forest Trail Map,(Texas Highway Department).

2-62 Texas Brazos Trail Map,(Texas Highway department).

2-63 Proposed Lakes from Surface Water Development, Texas Water Plon, (Texas Water Development Board,1973).

2-64 Allens Creek Nuclear Generating Station, Units I and 2, Preliminary Sofety Analysis Report.

2-65 South Texas Project, Units I and 2, Preliminary Safety Analysis Report.

2-66 Offshore Naviootion Chart, C&GS #227, Galveston to Rio Grande, (U.S.

Department of Commerce,1973).

2-67 Offshore Navigation Chart, C&GS #1279, Caicosieu Pass to Sabine Pors, (U. S. Department of Commerce, May 1974).

2-68 Offshore Navigation Chart, C&GS #1280, Sabine Bank to East Boy includ-ing Head Bank, (U. S. Department of Commerce, May,1973).

2-69 Enroute Low Altitude, Area L-17, (U. S. Department of Commerce, U. S.

Flight Information Publication, December 1973).

2-70 Enroute Low Altitude, Areas L-IS and L-16, (U. S. Department of Commerce, U. S. Flight information Publication, December 1973).

2-71 Houston Sectional Aeronautical Chart Scale I:500,000, (U. S. Dvortment of Commerce, March 1974).

( 2-72 " Standards for Protection Against Radiation," Code of Federal Requiotions, l

Title 10, Port 20.

2-73 " Licensing of Production and Utilization facilities," Code of Federal Regulations, Title 10, Port 50.

2-74 " Licensing and Regulatory Policy and Procedures for Environmental l Protection, Code of Federal Regulations, Title 10, Port 51.

l l

2-75 " Reactor Site Criteria," Code of Federal Regulations, Title 10, Port 100.

1 2-76 " Appendix l - Numerical Guides for Design Objectives and Limiting Conditions for Operation to Meet the Criterion 'As Low as Practicable' for Radioactive Material in Light-Water-Cooled Nuclear Power Reactor Effluents," Code of Federal Regulations, Title 10, l Port 50, Proposed Rule Making.

2-77 Preliminary Population Projections for Texas Counties, (State of Texas, Office of the Governor, April 1974).

l

! 2-78 D. L. Poston, Jr., and B. S. Bradshaw, Population Projections for Texas l

Counties, 1975-1990, (University of Texas, Austin, Population Research Center, May 1972).

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4-5 TERACORPORATION

2-80 Populations Projections 1970-2020 for the Gulf Coast Planning Region, (Houston - Galveston Area Council, April 1972).

2-81 1070 Census of Population and Housing - Texas, (U. S. Department of ,

Commerce, September 1971), PHC (2)-45.

2-82 Number of inhabitants - Texas, (U. S. Department of Commerce, Autust 197l_, PHC(l)-A45.

2-83 Census Tracts - Houston, Texas (U. S. Department of Commerce, May 1972) PHCll)-A45. -

2-84 Census Tracts - Galveston-Texas City, Texas, (U.S. Department of 1 Commerce, April 1972), PHC(l)-78.

2-8S Census Tracts - Beaumont-Port Arthur-Orange, Texas, (U.S. Department of Commerce, April 1972), PHC(l)-22.

2-86 R. T. Jaske, Use of Simulation in the Development of Regional Plans for Siting and Thermal Effluent Management, Paper 71-WA/Pwr-3, presented at the Winter Annual Meeting of the American Society of ,

Mechanical Engineers, washington, D. C. November,1971.

2-87 " Design basis Tornado for Nuclear Power Plants," Regulatory Guide 1.76, (National Regulatory Commission).

2-88 Climatic Atlas of the United States, (U. S. Department of Commerce, June 1968).

2-89 C. R. Hosier, " Low Level Inversion Frequency in the Continguous United States" Monthly Weather Review, (September 1961).

2-90 Climatographs of Texas, (U. S. Department of commerce, June 1969).

2-91 " Assumptions Used for Evaluating the Potential Radiological Consequences of a Loss of Coolant Accidet for Boiling Water

(

1 Reactors," Regulatory Guide 1.3, (National Regulatory Commission).

2-92 " Assumptions Used for Evoluting the Potential Radiological Consequences of a Loss of Coolant Accident for Pressurized Water reactors,"

Regulatory Guide 1.4, (National Regulatory Commission).

l 2-93 W. L. Fisher and others Geologic Atlas of Texas, Beaumont Sheet, l (University of Texas, austin, Burecu of Economic Geology,1968).

2 94 Electric Power System in Texas Mao, File No.1806, Revised 4-4-73, (Houston Lighting and Power company, Houston, Texas),

! 2-95 Systems Map of Houston Lighting and Power Company, Revised March 1973, (Houston, Texas).

2-96 Map of Territory Servied by Central Power and Light Company.

4-6 TERA CORPORATION

SECTION 3 1

3-1 " Preparation of Environmental Reports for Nuclear Power Stations," I Revision I, Regulatory Guide 4.2, (National Regulatory Commission).

l 3-2 " Licensing of Production and Utilization Facilities," Code of Federal Requiotions, Title 10, Port S0.

3-3 " Licensing and Regulatory Policy and Procedures for Environmental Prntection," Code of Federal regulations, Title 10, Port St.

3-4 " Reactor Site Criteria," Code of Federal Regulations, Title 10, Port 100.

3-5 " General Site Suitability Criteria for Nuclear Power Stations," Regulator-yGuide 4.7, (National Regulatory Commissino, Draft dated deptember 1974).

3-6 "Evoluotion of Explosions Postulated to Occur on Transportation Routes Near Nuclear Power Plant Sites," Regulatory Guide 1.91, (National Regulatory Commission, January 1975).

3-7 V. E. Barnes, project director, Geologic Atlas of Texas, Austin Beaumon-tSheet, (University of Texas, Austin, Bureau of Economic Geology, 1968).

3-8 V. E. Barnes, project director, Geologic Atlas of Texos, Austin Sheet, (university of Texas, Austin, Bureau of Economic Geology,1974) 3-9 W. L. Fisher, J. H. McGowen, L. F. Brwon, Jr., and C. G. Grout, EnvironmentalGeologic Atlas of the Texas Coastal Zone - Galveston-Houston Area, (University of Texas, Austin, Bureau of Economic Geology,1972), 9 lp.

3-10 W. L. Fisher and others, Environmental Geologic Atols of the Texas CoastolZone - Boy City-Freeport Area, (University of Texas, Austin, Burecuof Economic Geology), in press.

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4-7 TERACORPORATION

APPENDIX A SITE EVALUATION FACTORS During the site selection process, Site Evoluotion Factors were used to rank the sites and to identify the prime site. Site Evoluotion Factors, which are o more detailed refinement of the regional screening f actors, were developed for the following crecs of concern:

e Economics e Geology e Meteorology e Hydrology e Ecology e Demography e Land Use e Aesthetics A-l TERA CORPCRATION

ECONOMIC RATING SYSTEM The economic ratings presented in the Site Evoluotion Matrix were based on cost differentials in mills /kw-br. The cost differentials are combined into the following rating system, with five representing the most desirable economic rating and zero representing the least desirable.

Ratinc Mills /kw-br. Dif f erential 5 0 4 0.1 3 0.2 2 0.3 1

0.4 0 0.5 A-2 TERA CORPORATION

GOLOGY RATNG SYSTEM The geology rotings were based on evoluotion of the following f actors:

e Surfoce material types e Underlying deposits e Geologic hozords including:

Proximity to salt domes Area seismicity Proximity to literature linears and subsurface fault projections e Topography, soil stability and construction suitability, e Subsidence The above f actors were combined into the following rating system with number five representing ideal geologic siting conditions and zero representing the least desirable.

A-3 TERACORPORATION

GEOLOGY RATNG SYSTEM Roting 5

Low shrink-swell potential High slope stability High bearing capacity Low permeability Good drainage No geologic hozords in region 4

Low to moderate shrink-swell potential i

Moderate to high slope stability Moderate to high bearing capacity i Low to moderate permeability Moderate to good drainage Geologic hozords in region Moderate shrink-swell potential 3

Moderate slope stability Moderate bearing capacity Moderate drainage Geologic hozords in region; literature lincors or site; but not fault projections cross subsurface within .5 mi. of plant areo.

Moderate to high shrink-swell potential 2

Moderate to low slope stability Moderate to low bearing capacity Moderate to high permeability I

Moderate to poor drcinoge Geologic hozords near site; literature lincors or projections cross si te, but not l subsurface fault within .2 mi. of plant arco.

A4 TERACORPORATION l

I High shrink-swell potential Low slope stability Low bearing copocity High permeability Poor drainage Geologic hozords near site; literature lineers or subsurfact fault projections with .2 mi. of plant area.

O High shrink-swell potential Low slope stability Low bearing capacity High permeability Poor drainoge Geologic hozords of site; literature linears or subsurface fault projections cross plant arco.

l A-5 TERACORPORATION

4

~

METEOROLOGY RATNG SYSTEM The meteorological roting sptem was based on evoluction of the following

-meterological chorocteristics:

e Atmospheric diffusion Avercge mnuci diffusion chcrecteristics Short term diffusion chcrocteristics e Tornodo ed extreme winds e Fogging and icing e Wind chcracteristics The obeve f actors were combined into the follcwing reting system with number five representing ideci meteorologiccl conditions ed zero representing lecst desireble.

TERA CORPORATON

METEOROLOGY RATNG SYSTEM Rating 5 Good overage annual diffusion chorocteristics; good short term diffusion chorocteristics.

Design Basis Tornado Region ll or 111.

Insignificant fogging and icing conditions caused by plant operation.

No major population center on streamline of prevailing winds for gaseous effluent releases.

4 Good to overage annual diffusion chorocteristics; good to overage short term diffusion chorocteris-tics.

Design Basis Tornado Region i Occasional fogging and icing conditions caused by plant operation.

No major population center on streamline of preva!!ing winds for gaseous effluent releases.

3 Average annual diffusion chorocteristics; overage short term diffusion chorocteristics.

Design Basis Tornado Region I.

Occasional fogging md icing conditions caused by plant operation.

No major population center on streamline of prevailing winds for gaseous effluent releases.

2 Average to poor annual diffusion chorocteristics; overage to poor short term diffusion characteristics.

Design Basis Tornado Region I.

Occasional fogging and icing conditions caused by plant operation.

No major population center on streamline of prevailing winds for gaseous effluent releases.

TERA CORPORATION )

- . _ . - . _ __ . - - . . _l

I Poor to overage annual diffusion chorocteristics; poor short term dif fusion chorocteristics. Additional engi-neering features will probably be required to limit fission product releases.

Design Basis Tornado Region I.

Frequent fogging and icing conditions caused by plant operation.

No major population center on streamline of prevailing winds for gaseous effluent releases.

O Poor overage annual diffusion chcrocteristics; poor short term diffusion chorocteristics. Additional engineering ,

f eatures will be required to limit fission product releases.

4 Design Basis Tornado Region 1.

Major fogging and icing conditions caused by plant opero-tion.

Major population center on streamline of prevailing winds for gaseous effluent releases.

A-8 TERA CORPORATION

HYDROLOGY RATING SYSTEM The hydrology roting system was based on evoluotion of the following hydro-logical chorocteristics.

o Avollobility of cooling water and pumping requirements e Water quality e Flood protection e Aquifer classification using rating system described in Section 2.2.1.2.

The above factors were combined into the following rating rystem with number five representing the ideal hydrologic siting conditions and zero representing the least desirable.

A-9 TERACORPORATION

HYDROLOGY RATING SYSTEM Ratina 5 Adequate cooling water is available and pumping distance is small.

Water quality is excellent and blowdown water should have insignificant impact on receiving water. _

Little or no flood protection of safety related plant features will be required.

Site is located on "occeptcble" equif er zone, 4 Adequate cooling water is cvoilcble and pumping distance is smcIl to overage.

Water quality is good cnd blowdown wcter should have minor impoet on receiving waters.

Minor flood protection of scfety related plant f ectures will be required.

Site is located on "corditioncity acceptchle" couif er zone.

3 Adequate cooling water is ovcilable and pumping distence is overage.

' Noter quality is acceptable. Slowdown wcter could have medium impact on receiving waters.

Economically ceceptable flood protection of safety related plant features will be required.

Site is located on " conditionally cecepicble" equifer zone.

l 2 Adequate cooling water is available and pumping distance is overage to large.

Water quality is occeptable. Blowdown water could have medium impact on receiving waters.

Economically accepicble flood protection of scfety related plant features will be required.

Site is loco ed on "conditionctly acceptable" aquif er zone.

I Adequate cooling water is available and pumping distance is large.

Water quality is conditionctly acceptcble. Blowdown water could possibly have c significant impact on receiv-ing water.

A-10 TERA CORPORADON L

Flood protection of safety related plant features will be required, which could prove unocceptable economically.

Site is located on " conditionally acceptable" oquifer zone.

~

O Adequate cooling water is available and pumping distece is large. ,

Water qwlity could prove unocceptable. Blowdown water would have significant impact on receiving water ed could require treatment which could prove unocceptoble economically.

Economically unocceptable flood protection of safety realted plant features will be required.

Site is located on "unocceptable" oquifer zone.

A-1I TERACORPORATION

_ - . . , , -o.-. -

, ywy -, - . - - e - - - - . , y e e

ECOLOGY RATNG SYSTEM The ecological rating system was based on the evoluotion of the following

, ecological chorocteristics:

e The presence of important species, either plant or mimal e Environmentoily unique weos e The uniqueness, sensitivity, succesional status ed biotic diver-sity of the sites e The presence of recreationolly or commercially importet

! species e The presence of rare or endangered species.

e The presence of breeding or feeding grounds for important migrating species The above foctors were combined into the following rofing system with number five representing the least sensitivity or smallest impoet ed g representing the highest sensitivity or greatest impoet.

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A-12 TERACORPORATION

ECOLOGY RATNG SYSTEM Rating 5 The potential negative impact would be minimal.

4 Based on available information the potential negative impact would be minimal.

3 The potential neg itive impact would be limited.

2 The potentic! negative impact would be substantial but acceptable.

I Based on available information, the potential negative impact would be marginally acceptable.

O The potential negative impact would be excessive and unocceptable.

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l A-13 TERA CORPORATION

f DEMOGRAPHY RATNG SYSTEM The demography roting system was based on evoluotion of the following demographic chorocteristics:

o Compliance with demographic criterio described in Section 2.2.l.5.

e Transient population variations which are dependent on a seasonal, daily or special event basis, e Proximity of public facilities and institutions The above factors were combined into the following rating system with number five representing the ideal demographic siting conditions and zero representing the ,

least desirable.

e l

A-14 l

TERA CORPORATION

(

r 1 -~

~~ ,, ,

DEMOGRAPHY RATNG SYSTEM Rating 5 Site is outside of exclusion creo defined by demographic criterio.

Insignificant transient population variations.

No public facilities or institutions near site.

4 Site is outside of exclusion area defined by demographic criterio.

Minor transient population variations.

Very few public facilities or institutions near site.

3 Site is outside of exclusion area defined by demographic criteria.

Large, infrequent and predictable transient population variations.

Several public f acilities or institutions near site.

2 Site is outside of exclusion arco defined by demographic criteria.

Large, frequent and predictable transient population vari-otions.

Several public f acilities or institutions near site.

I Site is outside of exclusion area defined by demographic criteria.

Large, frequent and unpredictable transient population variations.

Several public facilities or institutions near site.

O Site is within exclusion area defined by demographic criteria.

Significont transient population variations.

Major public facilities or institutions near site.

A-l5 TERA CORPORATION

e LAND USE RATNG SYSTEM The land use rating system was based on evoluotion of the following land use chorocteristics:

e Existing land use e Airspace e Mineral reserves e Oil and gas fields e Archeological & historical sites e Recreational sites ,

e Proposed land use plans 1

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A-16 TERA CORPORATION 1

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LAND USE RATING SYSTEM Roting 5 Low yield land, f ew low value residences.

No major airways pass over site.

No known mineral reserves within site area.

No oil or gas wells within site - No pipelines cress site.

No known archeological & historical sites within site area.

No known recreational sites within site area.

No conflict with known proposed land use plans.

4 Some improved posture, several low value residences.

No major cirways pass over site.

No known mineral reserves within site area.

No oil or gas wells within site -I ew pipelines cross site.

No known archeological & historical sites within site creo.

Small park acreage within site creo.

No conflict with known proposed land use plans.

3 Improved posture, some crops, several low to moderate I

volve residences.

No major airway posses over site.

No known mineral reserves within site creo.

No oil or gas wells within site - Few pipelines cross site.

No known archeological & historical sites within site area.

Modest park and/or forest ocreage.

No conflict with known proposed land use plans.

l l 2 Rare crops, important forest products, numerous mode-rate value residences.

A-17 TERACORPORATION

Several mejor airways pass over site - Within ten miles of frequently used cirport.

Few oil or gas wells within site area - Several pipelines cross site.

Minor orcheological or historical sites within site creo.

Modest park and/or forest ocreage.

Minor conflict with proposed land use plans.

I intensively formed, numerous high value residences.

Within five miles of frequently used airport.

Several oil or gas wells on site - Several pipelines cross site.

Minor orcheological or historical sites within site area.

Significant park and/or forest ocreage.

Significant conflict with proposed Imd use plans.

O Intense speciality crop forming; numerous high value resi-dences.

Major industrio! facilities site area with excluded airspace.

Vcivable minero! reserve area within site creo.

Major orcheological or historical sites within site creo.

Major recreational creos within site creo.

Major conflict with proposed land use plans.

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A-18 TERA CORPORATION l

t

AESTWTICS RATING SYSTEM The oesthetic rating system was based on evoluotion of the following oesthetic considerations:

e Visibility of plant f eatures from transportation routes e Visibility of plant features from nearby communities and/or recreational creos e Impact of noise created by construction and operation of plant The obove considerations were combined into the following rating system with number five representing least impact and zero representing the greatest impact.

A-19 TERA CORPORATION

o e

AESTIETICS RATNG SYSTEM Rating 5 The potential negative oesthetic impact would be mini-mal.

4 Based on avollable information the potential negative oesthetic impact would be minimal.

3 The potential negative oesthetic impact would be limited.

2 The potential negative oesthetic impact would be subston-tiol but acceptable.

I Based on evollable information the potential negative cesthetic impact is marginally occeptable.

O The potential negative oesthetic impoet would be exces-sive and unocceptable.

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A-20 TERACORPORATION

TRANSPORTATION RATNG SYSTEM l

The transportation rating system was based on the evoluotion of the following

, transportation f actors:

e Highways and road access e Railrood service md access e Waterway access e Labor supply and labor housing The above factors were combined into the following rating system with nurnbe-five representing the ideal transportation siting conditions and zero representing the least desirable.

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A-21 TERACORPORATION

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o TRANSPORTATION RATNG SYSTEM l

Rating i

Major highway with good secondary rwds.

i 5 Good rail network.

l Adjacent to navigable waterway.

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l Good skilled labor pool, labor housing good.

4 Several good secondary roads.

Good single line railroad within a few miles or navigable -

l waterway with a few miles of site.

Fair labor pool, labor housing f air.

3 Few secondary roads.

Good single line railroad within several miles of site.

Fair labor pool, Icbor housing fair.

2 One secondary rood.

Low traffic rail service within a few miles of site.

i Limited labor pool, labor housing poor.

/

I Fem roads only with several miles of site.

- \

i Low traffic rail service within several miles of site.

No labor pool, no labor housing.

O Inaccessible.

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A-22 l

I TERACORPORATION