Black Billowing Smoke Coming From Transcanada Big Allis Ravenswood Power Plant In Long Island City Causing Concern On Roosevelt Island
“@jtcera: wondering about black smoke coming from Roosevelt island NYC. This is the source pic.twitter.com/nA2VBpXwXm” @piersmorganAbout 4:15 this afternoon a very heavy,
— miguel rivera (@mick271) June 24, 2013
scary looking, black smoke was coming out
of the Transcanada Big Allis Power Plant in Long Island City causing concern among Roosevelt Island residents and others.
It lasted for about 25 minutes
and then
stopped.
A Roosevelt Island resident reports being told by the Roosevelt Island Public Safety Department that debris got struck in the smokestack causing the black smoke but that it is safe now.
UPDATE 6/25:
Roosevelt Island's Assembly Member Micah Kellner forwards this response from Transcanada's Community Relations Coordinator Sharon Scott:
I appreciate that your office reached out and inquired about the smoke situation at the plant today. Below is a brief description of the day’s events. I hope this is helpful in bringing comfort to Assembly member Kellner’s constituents and our New York City neighbors.Roosevelt Island's interim Public Safety Department Director John McManus told me last night that the cause of the black smoke was debris getting caught in the smokestack.
At approximately 4:30 pm ET, TransCanada's Ravenswood Power facility lost one of the eight boiler combustion fans in an operating unit. As a result of the loss of this combustion fan, black smoke was present in the stack and people would have seen this for a short period of time. Corrective action was taken immediately and the situation is under control.
There is no risk to human health and our personnel are investigating what took place. Until we can determine what caused the fan to stop and safely make repairs, this individual unit will be operating under a limited load. However, the Ravenswood facility has the ability to deliver additional power from our reserve units on site, which will allow us to meet our commitments to our customers in the New York City area.