# Hot Ditch ain't gonna be so hot anymore



## Newsjeff (Jul 22, 2004)

Just saw this while at work.

http://hamptonroads.com/2011/09/dominion-plans-shutter-chesapeake-power-plant-2016


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## RoryGoggin (Jan 6, 2005)

Wow! That is going to change the entire ecological balance there, isn't it?


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## chriscustom (Jun 17, 2006)

I got news for you. It aint gonna close. I'm a power plant operator and The EPA is cracking down on ALL Power Plants. But the cost to the PEOPLE is to great to close the plant. Its all about money, I hate to say it but its all about the money. They'll build the air scrubbers and keep the Units on line.


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## New Kent Newbie (Apr 25, 2006)

They already dropped the outlet temp this winter the temp was 60 instead of the normal 75


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## FishyFingers (Oct 30, 2010)

It seems to me they already have a plan. Spend the same amount of money on a new plant, double your output and have a plant that will last way longer then cec... I think its safe to say no more ditch


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## Smittroc (May 1, 2009)

This will be very interesting..


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## chriscustom (Jun 17, 2006)

If they build a new plant it will still need cooling water for the pumps and other equipment. The cooling water will be river water because city water is way too expensive. What the EPA wants is to get rid of fossle fuels to clean up the air and to controll run off. Cooling water needs to be 125 deg at the discharge point, by the time it reaches the river it needs to be 90 or less. Most likely they will go to natural gas and use the same equipment, this would be the most cost effective means. We are going through the same prosess at NewPort News Shipyard Power Plant. So the Hot Ditch will still be the Hot Ditch.


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## crumbe (Jul 22, 2011)

They are not going to build the new plant in the same spot or fix the problems with the old one....the hot ditch one will be shutdown to build the other one else where. At least thats the way I read it.


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## FishyFingers (Oct 30, 2010)

crumbe said:


> They are not going to build the new plant in the same spot or fix the problems with the old one....the hot ditch one will be shutdown to build the other one else where. At least thats the way I read it.


glad im not the only one who read it that way


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## chriscustom (Jun 17, 2006)

I dont claim to be a know it all and I did read it that way also, but just watch. Money talks.


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## FishyFingers (Oct 30, 2010)

Money does talk. If I were going to spend that much money, I would also build something new that was more efficient, cleaner and lasts longer. I don't see them sinking money into something that old.


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## chriscustom (Jun 17, 2006)

Theres not much to change when going to Natural gas. You dont need the air scrubbers, you can use the same boilers just change the fronts. The boilers I operate were made in the 40's and they are still as efficent as when they were new. We are going to gas soon too. I dont feel safe with the gas but thats how it is. After reading the paper today....Let me be the first to say ....Dang it! I might be wrong. But I dont think so. Sounds like a weather forcaster, I'll be right one way or the other. Haha.


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## dropinbrix (Jul 10, 2011)

I wonder how much this will change the trout, red drum, striper, flounder and croaker fishing I enjoy in the river.


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## FishyFingers (Oct 30, 2010)

I need to be a weather forcaster too. "Today's chance of rain, 50%, todays chance of snow, 0%. The hurricane may or may not hit us, we will see when it gets closer"


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