Court Orders Landlord
To Guard Power Plant

After two break-ins this week at a crumbling and toxic power plant, the state secured a court order forcing the plant’s owners to post round-the-clock security at the site.

Attorney General George Jepsen and Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) Commissioner Daniel Esty announced that news Thursday afternoon.

The attorney general’s office worked with DEEP to win a court order requiring the owners of English Station (pictured) to have active security at the former power plant at all times.

English Station is a popular site for scavengers, who break in to the facility — on an island in the Mill River, at 510 Grand Ave. in Fair Haven — to haul out metal. The station is contaminated with dangerous PCBs and looted metal may be contaminated as well.

When burglars are caught, they’re subject to a forced bath to cleanse them of any chemicals. That happened earlier this week and in October. (Pictured at the top of the story: Scrap yard worker Jose Canuelas in a Tyvex suit after getting a scrub down; he’d handled pipes brought into the yard by an alleged English Station burglar.)

The latest breach at English Station was Wednesday night, said Susan Kinsman, spokesman for the attorney general’s office. The latest incident also required decontamination by DEEP.

In February, DEEP issued a cease and desist order against the owners of English Station, requiring them to secure the buildings and grounds. They failed to do so.

The plan is owned by Asnat Realty, LLC of Bayside, N.Y. and Evergreen Power, LLC, of Wilmington, Md. DEEP has blocked any demolition at the site until a proper remediation plan is made and the site is decontaminated.

A hearing is scheduled for Jan 7, 2013 on other requests by Jespen and Esty. They are asking the court to charge the owners for the cost of investigating and controlling the spread of toxic chemicals from the site.