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Sanitation Commissioner Steven M. Polan said yesterday that he is considering about 30 potential sites to build two or three incinerators to burn solid waste, a proposal sure to spark angry resistance from neighborhoods throughout New York City.
"The city is up against the wall in terms of garbage disposal capacity," Polan said. "There are no specific sites yet but there are about 30 designated locations in all five boroughs. Not all 30 will be practical, but we'll have to pick."
Polan refused to name the communities on the list. More detailed plans about the city's solid waste management plans will come in a comprehensive report out in October, Polan told a State Assembly hearing yesterday.
Any new incinerators require state approval, and public hearings would be held before site selection is complete.
But environmentalists criticized the department for going ahead with plans to build more incinerators, and warned of widespread opposition from the public and environmental advocates. Incinerators "have extensive air pollution impact," said Arthur Kell, a toxics project coordinator for the New York Public Interest Research Group. "Incineration does not resolve landfill capacity problems, and it degrades the environment at the same time."
"It opens a battle between us and the city," said Barry Commoner, a spokesman of the Center for the Biology of Natural Systems, an environmental advocacy group.
Critics of incinerators called the upcoming report a sham and suggested that the city decided to build incinerators before weighing alternatives, such as recycling.
"We...