Town Joins Suit To 'Bury The Lines'

SOUTHAMPTON, NY — The fight over utility poles is heating up in the western corner of Southampton Town.

Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman announced Monday that the town seeks to join suit with Brookhaven Town against PSEG Long Island, for erecting 79' poles along County Road 51, in "a rural pristine section of both Brookhaven and Southampton Towns that has been over the years preserved for its natural character," a release said.

Southampton filed a “motion to intervene” in New York State Supreme Court, to join the Town of Brookhaven’s action, which claims PSEG failed to adequately follow the State Environmental Quality Review Act, or SEQRA, a release from Schneiderman's office said.

The suit charges PSEG ignored decades-long preservation measures taken along County Road 51 — and Southampton Town officials seek to have PSEG Long Island remove the poles and bury the lines underground, the release said.

County Road 51 runs 10 miles from East Moriches to Riverside and has the East End’s highest elevations with "breathtaking vistas of the North Fork," the release said. "This stretch is home to Long Island’s largest white cedar swamp and sits on the edge of the core 50,000 acres of preserved pine lands."

In the 1990s, an 18-mile line was buried from Riverhead to Shinnecock Hills, running south on County Road 51, south on Speonk-Riverhead Road and east on Sunrise Highway, the release said.

Therefore, the suit maintains, there is precedence to bury the lines.

PSEG LI started erecting the poles through Brookhaven and Southampton in the spring, but elected officials maintain that the environmental review failed to comply with SEQRA, not weighing alternatives to erecting the 79' poles such as under grounding.

The public was not adequately notified and no community input was garnered before decisions were made, the release said.

It also states the public was not adequately notified and there was no community input in the planning process.

“The community must be permitted to voice concerns about a project as large as this,” Schneiderman said. “The only solution to this issue is to bury the lines.”

Elizabeth Flagler, media representative for PSEG LI, said PSEG's policy is not to comment on pending litigation.