Operations Suspended At 2 East End Battery Storage Facilities: Romaine

EAST HAMPTON, NY — Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine announced Monday that NextEra Energy had agreed to suspend operations at two battery energy storage facilities on the East End: the facility at Cove Hollow Road in East Hampton and the facility in Montauk near Fort Pond.

Both facilities are jointly owned by NextEra Energy and National Grid.

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"Less than 24 hours after the town board unanimously authorized litigation to shut down the East Hampton and Montauk battery storage facilities, NextEra has temporarily shut both facilities down," East Hampton Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez said. "This is the action we demanded, and I am pleased that NextEra responded swiftly to my September 29 letter and the town board's action. The board had authorized litigation, retained counsel and taken the steps necessary to go to court to secure this shutdown. I am pleased that NextEra acted before litigation had to be commenced."

She added: "The town will hold off on commencing litigation while counsel reviews the agreement. The town retains all of its legal rights should NextEra fail to follow through on removing all NOVEC 1230 from both facilities and ensuring appropriate fire safety and environmental measures are in place."

The suspension, Romaine said, follows weeks of discussions between Suffolk County and NextEra.

NextEra did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Patch.

Under the arrangement, NextEra will suspend operations at both sites and remove the Novec 1230 fire suppression agent from both facilities by about October 9, Romaine said.

"We are very grateful that this agreement has been reached," said Romaine. "The 2023 fire at the East Hampton BESS location, and the consequent contamination of the site and surrounding areas, prove that the operations must cease until changes are made that will protect our drinking water."

The State Department of Environmental Conservation has determined that when water was applied to the East Hampton facility during a May 2023 fire, it mixed with Novec 1230 and broke down into PFPrA, a short-chain "forever chemical," which has since been detected in drinking water in the surrounding area, Romaine said.

Two Suffolk County Water Authority wells have been taken offline, he added. The county has drilled monitoring wells to investigate the contamination and supports the Water Authority's litigation against NextEra, he said.

In July, Romaine and East Hampton Village Mayor Jerry Larsen sent letters to the chief executives of NextEra Energy and National Grid urging them to suspend operations at the East Hampton facility until the investigation is completed, he said.

"We need a remediation plan immediately, one approved by the DEC, so the hard work of cleaning the site can begin," said Romaine. "The community did not know for years that the 2023 fire had left behind PFPrA. They should not wait any longer for the situation to be addressed."

In August, the Town of East Hampton formally directed East Hampton Energy Storage Center, NextEra Energy and National Grid to take six specific actions, at their sole expense, to address fire-water containment and other safety concerns at the battery energy storage facility on Cove Hollow Road.

The demands include new engineering controls capable of containing all fire water and runoff, a revised emergency and safety plan, complete and certified technical information, a hazardous-waste management plan and an independent study of whether the facility remained necessary for the East End electric grid.

The action followed questions raised by the May 2023 battery fire and came as state and county agencies continued an investigation into PFPrA and other PFAS contamination near the Suffolk County Water Authority's Bridgehampton Road Wellfield. No source had been determined, town officials said.

Earlier this year, the Water Authority detected PFPrA at the wellfield, removing three wells from service and limiting a fourth to emergency use, town officials said.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is currently sampling the battery storage property, town officials said. The Suffolk County Department of Health Services is also conducting groundwater sampling and testing private drinking-water wells in the area.

The county has identified 26 homes in the area that are not connected to public water; results are not yet available for all of those wells, and several have not yet been sampled, town officials said.

When the facility was reviewed in 2017 by the town's planning board, the town relied on technical information provided by the applicant stating that no liquid within the battery cells could spill and that the only hazardous spillable liquid at the site was oil contained in the transformers and inverters, town officials said.

The approved plans therefore included containment for that oil, but not a permanent system capable of capturing the fire-suppression water generated during the May 2023 battery fire, which the Water Authority alleges exceeded 2.2 million gallons, officials added.

The town required the companies to:

1. Submit a revised emergency and safety plan for town approval explaining how the facility would respond to a worst-case battery fire, contain all fire-suppression water and promptly notify the town and emergency agencies. Submission alone will not constitute compliance.
2. Provide stamped engineering plans and install physical containment systems capable of capturing and holding all fire water and runoff on the property.
3. Prepare a comprehensive hazardous-waste management plan addressing damaged batteries, contaminated water and soil, routine battery replacement and the eventual decommissioning of the facility.
4. Correct and certify the facility's technical record, including complete information about the batteries and the materials they contain, environmental testing conducted since the 2023 fire and changes made to the facility since it was approved.
5. Provide an independent study examining whether the facility remains necessary for the reliability of the East End electric grid, and whether safer alternatives or another location could meet that need.
6. Provide full access and cooperation to the town and its consultants for inspections and environmental sampling, and reimburse the Town for the reasonable legal and technical costs of the review.

"These demands come with firm deadlines," Burke-Gonzalez said. "The town has reserved every enforcement option available to ensure the companies meet their obligations and put the necessary safeguards in place."

And in June, Burke-Gonzalez called on New York State, Suffolk County, and Suffolk County Water Authority leaders to form a coordinated joint task force to protect the community's drinking water and groundwater, following the detection of PFAS "forever chemicals" in public drinking water supply wells south of the East Hampton Energy Storage Center at 3 Cove Hollow Road, after a 2023 fire at the facility, which officials have said may be the source of the contamination.

In June, SCWA filed a federal lawsuit against the operator of the battery storage facility, town officials said.

According to the SCWA, two of its affected wells exceeded New York State's maximum contaminant level for PFAS, and SCWA has taken the affected wells out of service as a result of the detections.

Immediately upon learning of the lawsuit, Burke-Gonzalez sent a letter to, among others, Governor Kathy Hochul, Romaine, and SCWA, urging a coordinated response. The letter asked the offices to establish a joint task force to ensure that residents' drinking water and the underlying groundwater are protected, including testing nearby private wells and pooling State and County resources so that the burden does not fall on ratepayers or individual homeowners. About 30 private wells could be affected, with most homes in the area already connected to SCWA water, officials said.

"East Hampton residents deserve to know that when they turn on the tap, the water there is safe," Burke-Gonzalez said at the time. "We cannot ask families to wait years for a court to decide who is responsible before their water is protected. That is why I called on the state, the county, and the Water Authority to come together now to share data, align on a treatment and replacement strategy, and commit the resources our community needs. I am grateful that county health officials are now testing private wells door to door, because families who draw their water from private wells have no way to know whether it is safe unless someone tests it. We will keep pressing every level of government until this is resolved. I have also informed the East Hampton Village Mayor of these developments."

The county will continue its groundwater testing in the area. For more information, contact the Suffolk County Department of Health at 631-852-6700.