East Hampton Town Trustees Move Forward With Plans For Joint Hearing On Deepwater Project

The East Hampton Town Trustees on Monday agreed to join the Town Board in holding a public hearing on Thursday, May 17, to publicly review a proposal by Deepwater Wind to bring a power cable from the South Fork Wind Farm ashore at Beach Lane in Wainscott.

The public hearing will be held at 6:30 p.m. at LTV Studios in Wainscott, allowing both boards and members of the public to weigh in on two easements that Deepwater Wind has requested from the Town Board and from the Trustees to allow the company to run a power cable from 15 turbines that the company hopes to build in the ocean about 30 miles southeast of Montauk.

The cables would run under the ocean beach at Beach Lane in Wainscott and then beneath town roads from there to a PSEG Long Island substation in East Hampton Village.

The beach in Wainscott where the cable will first touch land is what the Trustees were concerned about at a meeting on Monday night—specifically, how the document sealing the deal between Deepwater and the Trustees would be an easement.

Rick Drew, the deputy clerk of the Trustees, said that he and the Trustees would probably be more “comfortable” if the deal was agreed upon as a lease from the town to Deepwater, which would allow them to exercise more control than an easement would. The other Trustees agreed with Mr. Drew.

“If we get a lease, we can have terms that make them notify us and maybe get permitting or something to have a little control over what they will be doing with that property in the future,” Trustee Attorney Chris Carillo said, contrasting that scenario to the “perpetual grant of right” that an easement would afford to Deepwater. “If they broke a lease, we’d have legal recourse,” he added.

“We want to set ourselves up in the best position possible,” Trustee Susan McGraw Keber said. “If Deepwater Wind suddenly went bankrupt or is sold, and they are no longer responsible for handling or maintaining the turbines, then we’d have a whole new negotiation with a different company to establish.”

With these thoughts in mind, the Trustees also emphasized the importance of hearing the public’s opinion at the upcoming hearing.

“We have some big discussions to be had in the near future, and it will be very interesting to hear how the public weighs in,” Mr. Drew said.