By Dustin Brown
Several borough leaders have pulled out of a lawsuit against the New York Power Authority, saying a potential deal being brokered by Silvercup Studios and the borough president’s office would do “nothing for the community.”
Silvercup Studios and borough officials are reportedly negotiating with the New York Power Authority to have two natural gas-powered turbines removed from the Vernon Boulevard location by October 2004 as long as one of two new power plants proposed for the surrounding communities begins operating by then.
State Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan (D-Ridgewood), City Councilman Walter McCaffrey (D-Woodside) and Queensbridge Houses Tenants Association President Nina Adams announced last Thursday they were withdrawing from the lawsuit because they considered the settlement to be inadequate.
“Although October 2004 is the target date for removal of the power plants, the agreement does not ensure that the power plants would be removed by this date or at all,” the group said in a statement.
Removing the generators would be contingent on the completion of a major expansion at the NYPA’s Charles Poletti Power Project on 20th Avenue or the construction of Astoria Energy’s new power plant on the Castle Oil site on Steinway Street, Deputy Borough President Peter Magnani said.
Silvercup and a coalition of community leaders filed a lawsuit earlier this year claiming NYPA illegally sited the generators, which are on coveted waterfront property in an area that has long been eyed for major redevelopment. Although Silvercup won its case in State Supreme Court in Queens, NYPA appealed the decision last month to a state appeals court in Brooklyn, which is expected to issue a ruling by the end of the summer. A settlement would likely call for the appeal to be terminated.
The appeal may also be affected by a Staten Island State Supreme Court ruling issued Monday. Justice Philip G. Minardo refused to halt the operation of a generator in Staten Island despite residents’ concerns that NYPA did not properly assess the plant’s potential to pollute, The New York Times reported.
NYPA contends the two Queens generators and eight others put up around the city are needed to stave off a power crisis this summer. Eight of the 10 generators are already on line, including the two in Queens.
Although the settlement deal would call for the Queens generators to eventually be moved off the Vernon Boulevard location, McCaffrey and others say it is too open-ended.
“I did not want to participate in something that at the end of the day the community would be losing out on,” McCaffrey said. “The proposed compromise that has been discussed by the borough president and the state officials really does nothing for the community.”
Even though the community leaders could push ahead with the suit if Silvercup settled, they do not have the financial resources to continue without the Long Island City studio’s support, McCaffrey said.
Magnani praised the potential settlement as a means of avoiding a protracted court battle and thus ensuring the generators’ expedient removal.
“If we don’t have this agreement, then there’s no date by which the generators would have to leave,” Magnani said. “There would be no termination date as to how long they could stay on the site because they could continue appealing the suit.”
One of the remaining co-petitioners is the Astoria-based Coalition Helping Organize a Kleaner Environment, or CHOKE. The organization’s lawyer, Peter Vallone, Jr., said CHOKE is considering pulling out of the suit to concentrate its energies on battling larger power plants proposed for western Queens.
“CHOKE is completely against this settlement as we would be in the forefront in the fight against Poletti and the Astoria site,” he said.
NYPA spokesman Luis Rodriguez said the new power plants must come on line before the turbines are removed.
“We cannot move the units until there is power in the system,” he said. “You can’t take something away and replace it with nothing, and that’s really what the issue is.”
Rodriguez said that although negotiations have been continuing, he was unaware of any impending settlement.
The appellate court in Brooklyn also heard an appeal brought by the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, which lost a suit in State Supreme Court in which it disputed NYPA’s decision to place the 10 generators around the city.
Reach reporter Dustin Brown by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 154.
