Subject: 	NYPA Generator Program

From today's NY Times.  Looks like it will not be smooth sailing for NYPA's
addition of gas turbines for this summer.  While only one project is to be
halted this could set a precedent for the other 10 units which also were
rushed through environmental permitting (and may also be sited on dubious
land).

Judge Stops Power Project Until Review Is Performed

By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
  
A judge ordered a halt Wednesday to work on a New York Power Authority plant
in Queens, one of seven mini- plants intended to help relieve a possible
summer energy shortage. The agency plans to appeal.  

New York State repeatedly violated its own environmental laws in its haste
to install a mini-power plant in Queens, and it must halt work on the
project until it conducts a thorough environmental review, a judge ruled
yesterday.

The ruling, by Justice Joseph G. Golia of State Supreme Court in Queens,
struck a blow to the Pataki administration's attempts to increase the
region's power supply by this summer. The administration is spending $510
million to put six new, small plants in the city and one on Long Island by
June 1, and Gov. George E. Pataki and his aides have argued that the
generators are crucial to avoiding sudden sharp increases in electricity
prices like those last summer, and even possible blackouts.

Yesterday's ruling applied only to one of those projects, on Vernon
Boulevard, alongside the Queensboro Bridge and the East River in Long Island
City. But the decision dealt with some of the same environmental issues
being considered in a separate lawsuit in Brooklyn challenging all the mini-
plants, a case in which a ruling is expected any day.

Two dozen opponents of the Queens project, including several elected
officials, community organizers and local business people, held a jubilant
rally at the Long Island City power plant site yesterday afternoon to
declare victory over what they described as an arrogant administration.

"This shows they just can't go putting anything they want in this
neighborhood," said Rita Normandeau, president of the Queensbridge Tenants
Association. "We have lot of kids with asthma because of the plants already
here, and seniors with respiratory illnesses. We put up a big fight because
that's the only thing that works, when they know you're not going away."

Borough President Claire Shulman said, "This tells the state it can't ignore
the community and the public in siting decisions."

As the critics spoke, their backs to the site, workers continued to hoist
steel beams, drive lifts and occasionally demand that the opponents step
behind the property line. A spokesman for the New York Power Authority, the
agency that is building the mini-plants, said that work on the project would
continue until the justice's ruling takes effect in a few days, and that the
authority would appeal the decision.

Mr. Pataki's office did not return calls seeking a response to the ruling.

Michael Petralia, the Power Authority spokesman, said: "We disagree with the
judge's decisions on the merits. We believe we followed and even exceeded
all regulatory requirements. These plants will be the cleanest in New York
City and we are spending an extra $50 million to ensure that."

Private developers have proposed several much larger new plants, many well
over 1,000 megawatts, that would help alleviate the region's shortfall, but
the first are not expected to go on line for at least three years. The Power
Authority's seven mini-plants would have a combined output of about 450
megawatts.

The authority decided in November that it did not need to do an
environmental impact statement, a comprehensive review that state law
requires for many construction projects. Such a review would take weeks or
months to complete, and might have jeopardized the administration's plan to
have the plants running by June 1.

But Justice Golia ruled that on several points, the state had no evidence
for its finding that it did not need an environmental review - that, in
fact, the evidence argued for a review. He said the administration came to
its conclusion first and then marshaled its arguments in support of its
decision only after the decision had been made, a subversion of the law's
intent.

He wrote that the authority "is directed to cease all construction and
related activities." He also ruled that the State Department of
Environmental Conservation had improperly granted an air quality permit to
the plant - without which it cannot operate - and he voided the permit.

The justice gave the parties to the lawsuit five days to work out the
language of a court order for him to sign, a practice known as a settle
order. His ruling will not take effect until then.

State environmental law requires taking what Justice Golia called "a hard
look" at several issues in determining whether an environmental review is
needed, and the justice ruled that the Power Authority had repeatedly failed
that test.

The Power Authority acknowledged that the Long Island City site was likely
to be contaminated with crude oil, PCB's, toxic metals, asbestos and lead,
from previous industrial uses and spills. Such chemicals, when disturbed,
could affect groundwater and worker safety, but the authority, known by the
acronym NYPA, did not conduct any soil tests or develop a plan for dealing
with the contamination.

"In view of the fact that the construction of the proposed project could
cause a release of hazardous materials, the court finds that NYPA did not
take a hard look at this area of concern," Justice Golia wrote.

He concluded that the authority, in its insistence on characterizing the
neighborhood as industrial, "gave scant recognition to the residential,
recreational and community uses that exist in the area" and "failed to take
a hard look at the proposed facility's impact on the existing neighborhood's
character."

But the justice did not directly address whether the power authority had
similarly glossed over air quality concerns, an issue that is at the heart
of the Brooklyn suit against all the mini-plants.

The plants are turbines, similar to jet engines, that burn natural gas and
are housed inside buildings designed to muffle noise and disperse air
emissions through tall smokestacks. Two of them are in the South Bronx, one
is in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, one is in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and one is in
Rosebank, Staten Island. The Long Island plant is in Islip.

Some of the sites, including the one in Queens, contain two turbines, and
there are 11 turbines in all at the seven sites.

The turbines are among the cleanest of power generators, but like all fossil
fuel plants, they would emit air pollution. Each turbine could produce up to
61 tons a year of toxic compounds, soot and chemicals that contribute to
smog, though state officials insist that the actual figure would be much
lower because the plants would run only part of the time, when demand is
high.

The Power Authority has promised to offset any emissions by reducing
pollution from other sources.