Uprooting Austin's Holly Street Power Plant

The tubes-and-concrete blight that is the Holly Power Plant will finally close. Built almost 50 years ago, plant staff have been busy turning the useless hulk into our own little Jolly Rubino. It barely supplies a tenth of Austin's power grid, yet has bullied a loud, ugly, foul-smelling footprint on the banks of Town Lake since 1960.

Even though a Texas Dept. of Health report didn't find immediate risks to Austin residents, it lists 17 major leak incidents, including fuel oil, turbine oil and lubricants. Oh, and PCBs.

Did I mention that it's caught fire four times since 1993? Whoever was in charge of keeping this corpse resuscitated through all that for 47 years (including a City Council decision to close it two years ago, which they reneged on) needs to be repurposed for good. Put them in charge of the Save Barton Springs coalition. Hell, hire them for Austin's GreenChoice program, and keep 'em on familiar turf.

In 1989 I was a wide-eyed 23-yr-old tooling around Austin with my fishing pole tied to my bike. I stopped at the Longhorn dam and dropped my lure in. After a minute the quiet was shattered by a voice blasting across the river: "Jimbo Whosit, call on line four. Jimbo Line four." Then, as I was packing up (nary a bite), this obnoxious mechanical whine started up inside the plant, spooking grackles from the trees.

After its razing (not a moment too soon) the only thing remaining will be that way cool arch along the hike and bike trail.


Good riddance to bad rubbish. Let's turn it into an Eastside brewpub and outdoor stage!