After more than four decades, the Holly Power Plant in East Austin will shut down.
The last two of its remaining generators will be switched off at the stroke of midnight on Sunday.
Neighbors in the area have been fighting for years to have the plant shut down because of noise, safety and health problems.
"Many, many years ago it was really, really bad [when] smoke or explosions would come out … To me it was a hazard to our livelihood," neighbor Gloria Valdez said.
Valdez has lived near the Holly Power Plant since it opened in 1960. Since 1995, the plant has caught fire four times. One of the worst was on Halloween night in 2001.
"All of the sudden we heard a big explosion. All of the neighborhood came out and we saw a big cloud of black smoke,” neighbor Juventina Martinez said.
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Powering down
The Holly Power Plant will shut down at midnight Sunday after years of oppostion from neighbors.
 
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In the mid 1990s the city of Austin installed a second set of windows in every house around the power plant to block out the noise.
"When I started finding out about the noise problems and the effects the plant was having on the neighborhood, I started getting involved and formed protests and went to city council meetings," neighbor Connie Leaverton said.
In 2005, the first two of the plant's four generators were shut down. The plant will be completely decommissioned by 2010.
The land will be turned into a city park.
Neighbors will be holding a victory countdown starting at 11:30 p.m. Sunday.
