{"id":279587,"date":"2026-06-23T11:06:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T15:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/23\/pictou-county-power-plants-pivot-to-dry-technology-slashing-need-to-draw-groundwater\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T11:10:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T15:10:31","slug":"pictou-county-power-plants-pivot-to-dry-technology-slashing-need-to-draw-groundwater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/23\/pictou-county-power-plants-pivot-to-dry-technology-slashing-need-to-draw-groundwater\/","title":{"rendered":"Pictou County power plants pivot to ‘dry’ technology, slashing need to draw groundwater"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pictou County power plants pivot to ‘dry’ technology, slashing need to draw groundwater<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/nova-scotia\/pictou-county-power-plants-pivot-to-dry-technology-slashing-need-to-draw-groundwater-9.7244518<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-06-23 11:06:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.cbc.ca<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 5 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

The new natural gas and diesel power plants that are on the horizon for Pictou County will not draw or discharge water at an industrial scale, the grid operator has decided.<\/p>\n

The shift to a so-called dry system comes 10 months after plans for two gas-fired plants were made public. The proposals swiftly drew criticism from locals and organizations who highlighted potential negative environmental impacts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Among their concerns were that aquifers that feed residential wells would be drained, and that ecosystems supported by local wetlands, brooks and rivers would be irreparably altered.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Under the original proposal, at peak operations, each 300-megawatt plant would have drawn 175,000 litres of water per hour from deep wells and used it to cool the system and quell air emissions. Much of the water would have turned into steam, but the process would have also created wastewater \u2014 50,000 litres per hour at peak.<\/p>\n

The wastewater would have gone through a \u201cneutralization system\u201d and then into nearby watercourses.<\/p>\n

But Chris Milligan, IESO\u2019s vice-president of planning and procurement, said new studies determined \u201cthere would not be sufficient groundwater there to use a high-water technology in our plants.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so we have adjusted \u2014 based on both that fieldwork and the feedback we\u2019ve heard from the community \u2014 our procurement process to require a low-water technology for emissions control,\u201d he said in an interview.<\/p>\n

According to the IESO, this type of low-water combustion system is commonly referred to as “dry low NOx.”<\/p>\n

\"AChris Milligan, vice-president of planning and procurement for the Nova Scotia Independent Energy System Operator. (Jeorge Sadi\/CBC)<\/p>\n

IESO does not plan to build the power plants itself, rather it\u2019s preparing to put out a…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pictou County power plants pivot to ‘dry’ technology, slashing need to draw groundwater https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/nova-scotia\/pictou-county-power-plants-pivot-to-dry-technology-slashing-need-to-draw-groundwater-9.7244518 Publish…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":279588,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/ais\/1.7624610,1756940203000\/full\/max\/0\/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%287%2C0%2C1164%2C654%29%3BResize%3D620","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64],"class_list":["post-279587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-energy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279587"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279587"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":279589,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279587\/revisions\/279589"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}