Consolidated Edison, the New York power utility, quietly began the initial stages of construction last week for its controversial power plant at Storm King Mountain near Cornwall, N.Y.
The utility made no public announcement of the construction start and held no formal ground-breaking ceremony. The only people present as the bulldozers began work were construction crews and a small group of demonstrators from Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference, an environmental organization.
By breaking ground for the project, Con Ed avoided the possibility that its Federal Power Commission license for the Storm King plant would expire. The permit would have been revoked in October if the utility had not begun construction work by that time.
The start of the project came after more than a decade of continuous battles with environmentalists, both in and out of court, some of which remain unresolved.
To complete the project, Con Ed will need to obtain about 300 acres of Harvard's Black Rock Forest, a tract of land bequeathed to the University by Ernest G. Stillman '08 upon his death in 1949.
Daniel Steiner '54, general counsel to the University, said in October that Harvard would not sell its land to the utility unless under "genuine threat" of successful legal action. Steiner yesterday reaffirmed that position.
Con Ed's action brought immediate response from Scenic Hudson, which has guided the fight against the project since it was first announced.
Alexander Saunders, chairman of the organization, criticized the utility's "arrogant motion of starting one of the most wasteful and costly projects of its type in history."
"The attorney general of the state has appealed to the Public Service Commission to stop the project on the basis of cost and that viable, less costly alternatives exist," Saunders said in a prepared statement.
He also cited several unresolved court actions--one asking for a reopening of Federal Power Commission licensing hearings on the project and another concerning the necessity of permits form the Army Corps of Engineers--currently under appeal in federal court.
"One must conclude that Con Edison just doesn't give a damn," Saunders said. "Con Ed thinks it is big enough to thumb its nose at the public and get away with it."
Thomas Bush, a spokesman for Con Ed, said yesterday that all the construction currently in progress is on land already owned by the utility and is not subject to any unobtained permits.
"We haven't done anything that involves dredging and filling," the two operations that could fall under the Corps of Engineers' jurisdiction, Bush said, adding that the utility would store any excavated material on its own land, pending a court ruling in the case.
He said Con Ed has "every reason to expect we will obtain the permits or that the court will rule they aren't necessary," but added the utility is prepared to "haul it [the material] away" if the courts rule against the utility and permits are not granted.
Bush said the utility would be ready to begin blasting the tunnel for the project within two months. New York City officials and environmentalists have expressed fears that the blasting may damage the Catskill Aqueduct, which supplies about 40 per cent of the city's water supply.
The Con Ed spokesman could not give a specific date when the blasting would reach its closest point to the aqueduct, about half way between the top and the bottom of the Storm King plant's tunnel to the Hudson.
He also would not estimate when Con Ed would need Harvard's land, but said most of the early work would be done at the riverfront, on the opposite side of the project.
Con Ed announced early last month that it would begin construction within a month, despite several legal obstacles in its path.
Asked why the utility began its operations without any public announcement or formal groundbreaking, Bush said: "The company just decided to proceed. There was really no reason at all.
