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Poletti Plant to be destroyed in 2013

Poletti Plant to be destroyed in 2013
By Rebecca Henely

About two years after its shuttering, state Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Astoria) announced Monday the Poletti Power Plant will be dismantled in 2013.

“As we prepare to ring in the new year, I look forward to celebrating the much-awaited deconstruction of this power plant as well as continuing our work to make western Queens a green neighborhood whose residents are healthy and air is clean,” Gianaris said in a statement.

The Charles Poletti Power Plant, named after New York’s 46th governor, operated for 33 years on the Con Edison Complex, on 20th Avenue near Shore Boulevard in Astoria, and was named the city’s worst polluter.

The New York Power Authority, which owned the 885-megawatt oil and natural gas plant, had wanted to keep it operational as it built another plant on the Con Edison complex.

City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria), then a lawyer, acted as pro bono counsel for Coalition Helping Organize a Kleaner Environment, National Resource Defense Council and other Astoria leaders and sued to have the old plant shut down.

Then-Gov. George Pataki brokered a settlement and they agreed to do so.

Vallone praised the imminent destruction.

“As long as it’s standing there, it’s an ugly, dangerous eyesore that can be restarted and that is not something we want to risk,” Vallone said.