Four gargantuan fuel tanks left empty for years behind Redondo Beach's waterfront power plant finally have a date with the wrecking ball.

The rusting basins that have long been considered city eyesores will be sliced apart and stripped down within the next few weeks. They were rendered useless in the mid-1980s when the AES power plant -- then operated by Southern California Edison -- stopped burning crude oil.

"We're not going to burn oil there ever again, and (the price of) scrap steel is at an all-time high, so it's a good time to do it," said plant manager Brad Scott. "Having those big tanks on our property is a hazard. This is purely an economic and safety decision."

Crews started demolition work this week on the largest of the foursome -- a monstrous basin measuring 219 feet in diameter and 48 feet tall, with a capability of 322,000 barrels of oil.

The other three, which measure 160 feet in diameter and stand 40 feet high, will face a similar fate within the next few weeks. They were built to hold 140,000 barrels apiece.

The company has no immediate plans to develop the roughly 15 acres between Harbor Drive and Catalina Avenue, Scott said, nor is the move related to the plant's drawn-out dispute with the city over millions of dollars in unpaid utility-users' taxes. He said the decision was driven partly by money but also because of safety.

"We don't want to associate this with the UUT issue," Scott said.

By late January, Redondo Beach was looking to recoup roughly $60 million in utility-users' tax dollars from the plant.

AES operates under a contract with the Williams Co., which supplies the fuel it converts to electricity. Company officials believe they should be absolved from paying the city's 4.75 percent tax on utility usage, just as Southern California Edison was exempt from doing so as a public utility, per city code. They argue the plant doesn't have to supply power directly to the public to qualify for the exemption.

Though the city and AES are at odds over the tax bill, the move won praise from local leaders who have long wanted to see the oil tanks gone.

"I see it as a great thing," said Councilman Chris Cagle, who represents residents along the waterfront. "I think people are just used to them. (But) they are eyesores."

When AES acquired the plant in 1997 from Edison, the company moved quickly to demolish three obsolete smokestacks on the property.

The towers came crumbling down in 1999, shortly after AES and the city signed a two-year pact to "suspend" their dispute over the utility-users' tax. Under the agreement, AES was also directed to develop a master plan for the property, a condition that lead to the passage -- and later, the demise -- of a blueprint called Heart of the City.

AES removed one oil tank in 2002 and had always intended to remove the remaining four, said C.J. Thompson, a former plant manager who now serves as president of AES Southland.

But those plans stalled when the city's redevelopment efforts did, he said.

"We started going through the process of demolishing the tanks ... and we were proceeding as part of our commitment" under the memorandum of understanding, Thompson said. "When Heart of the City derailed ... we weren't sure where things were going, so we just put it on hold."

Demolition of the tanks required AES to apply for a city building permit. But because they no longer contain oil and the company is not planning to construct anything in their place, the California Coastal Commission waived its requirements for a coastal development permit.

The commission ruled in a March 1 report that, because the tanks have been cleaned, the work would not significantly impact coastal resources.

Scott said AES expects to pay about $100,000 for crews to demolish the tanks and haul them away. He expects the work to be finished within 12 weeks.