SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Illinois EPA) has granted the Exelon Dresden Nuclear Power Station an additional provisional variance from the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit thermal limits, due to continuing extremely warm and dry weather conditions and high demand for electricity. 

Dresden is a nuclear-fueled steam electric generating facility located at the confluence of the Des Plaines and Kankakee Rivers near Morris in Grundy County.  Circulating water used to cool and condense steam from the generating process is discharged into a cooling pond and then into the Illinois River.