Environmental problems from Astoria power plant?

And as a follow up, are there consultants who could perform some sort of environmental audit of the building, much like a structural engineer would evaluate the soundness of the building itself?

A good starting point for information gathering might be the community board manager. You can also ask if anyone at the Queens Civic Congress has information. I can't remember who the civic association people are in that area, but I seem to remember there is an active group around there. All these contacts can be found online. Also try Peter Vallone's office.

Thanks, Generalogoun. I sometimes forget that there were sources of information before the internet.

Is it Plaza 21 you're looking at?

It is, Calldn. Do you know anything?

I only know that I went to look at the building and saw how close the power plant was and considered it to be a major deterent. I could see many very large tranformers from the window.

I'm not sure if that's a health concern or not. That power plant is two mile away from UES and most of east Midtown.

transformers emit serious electro-magnetic resonance---worse even that high-voltage transmission lines---buy elsewhere

Thanks for the advice. We decided to walk away anyway because of problems with the sellers. Though I still find it hard to believe that there wouldn't be news of a major health epidemic in Astoria if the plant was a serious health risk.

What problems were there with the sellers? The building seems to be selling really well inspite of it's out of the way location. i do feel it was priced slightly below the rest of the Astoria market but not enough for me to live in that location.

We felt we never got a straight answer on anything. Broker would tell us one thing, then we'd challenge it, then seller's attorney said something else, then they came back two days later with a completely new story. It got to the point where we were concerned about relying on anything they said, and then a few other issues just increased our discomfort. We just hit a point where we had to decide how many impediments were too many.

All in all, we did like the apartment, building, and even location since we wanted to be reasonably close to Astoria Park. It just wasn't right for our circumstances due to some personal concerns but might be great for someone else.

I agree with your feelings. If you are uncomfortable because of the plant, no amount of scientific analysis will change that. Best to look elsewhere.

A parallel can be drawn to nuclear exposure. Scientists can say with confidence what levels will cause measurable damage, but the level at which it is "safe" is a wild (hopefully conservative) guess.