PSEG Underground Cable Would Bisect Long Pond Greenbelt; Organization Wants A Different Route

A public hearing on PSEG Long Island’s proposal to run a 5.2-mile underground power cable between Bridgehampton and East Hampton will be held at LTV Studios in Wainscott at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 28.

Although the cable would be laid along a Long Island Power Authority right-of-way that bisects the Long Pond Greenbelt, members of the Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt say the work could cause irreparable harm to rare habitat found in the roughly 1,000-acre stretch of coastal ponds and woodlands. They are asking PSEG to find another route.

According to PSEG, the Bridge to Buell cable project would deliver 69 kV of electricity from its Bridgehampton substation on the west side of the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike, just north of Scuttle Hole Road, to its Buell Lane substation in East Hampton.

The power source is needed, PSEG says, to assure that there will not be peak period power outages in East Hampton Town, where demand for electricity has outstripped demand elsewhere on Long Island.

PSEG plans to clear nearly an acre of land next to the substation as a staging area for the project, but that land is near Great Swamp and other land preserved by Southampton Town.

According to Dai Dayton, the president of the Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt, there is a vernal pond, a known habitat of the endangered tiger salamander along the right-of-way. She added that the utility-owned property west of the turnpike is near another vernal pond.

“It’s closer than the 535 feet the DEC would require you and me to respect,” she said this week, referring to the State Department of Environmental Conservation’s required setbacks for endangered species.

PSEG plans to lay the cable in open trenches for most of the route, but it plans to use underground horizontal directional drilling to pass under roads, the Long Island Rail Road bed, and sensitive environmental areas.

The Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt say the utility’s plan to release up to 15,000 gallons of slurry as part of the drilling process could destroy the vernal pond if it is not contained properly.

In an open email to supporters, Dayton and Sandra Ferguson, the Friends’ vice president, noted that the utility right-of-way was established well before zoning laws and other land-use regulations were developed to protect the environment. The easement allowed for above-ground transmission lines but carried no underground rights they said. In order to proceed with this project, PSEG/LIPA must acquire rights from landowners along the right-of-way, which include both Southampton Town and Suffolk County.

Dayton said PSEG could just as easily run the cable down the turnpike to Montauk Highway, where it could head east into East Hampton. She noted that contractors worked at night, using powerful lights, for other projects along the highway.

She said PSEG has been talking about running the cable for some time, but only recently completed a 900-page draft environmental impact statement for the project.

The project has caught the eye of County Legislator Bridget Fleming, who was able to get the Suffolk County Legislature to approve a measure that will allow the legislature to weigh in on the process.

The project’s DEIS can be viewed by going to psegliny.com/reliability/bridgetobuell.