Letters

Another grid-scale battery storage facility burst into flames last week in Escondido, California. That’s the third BESS fire in San Diego County this year. One burned for two weeks. But not to worry, the locals are blessed with enough open spaces and common sense to place these masses of explosive chemicals where, in case of accident, they can cook-off far from people’s homes.

It’s a reminder of the dangerous foolishness still being preached by the Canal BESS hired guns who have assured us that BESS fires are rarer than unicorns. They still tell us that we should relax and welcome 30 trailer loads of volatile lithium batteries into a Hampton Bays residential community. Fortunately, Southampton now knows better. But it was a close-run thing.

Remember the bad old days last summer? Canal BESS was on the fast track. They somehow convinced a distracted Town Board that gigantic piles of lithium batteries were so safe that they should be waved right into a Hampton Bays neighborhood on a negative declaration that precluded the need for safety and environmental studies.

That’s when retired firefighter, and now Hampton Bays Civic Association president, Ray DeAngelo stood in the breach: Not so fast. We need to do our homework. These things are not the harmless new neighbors they are supposed to be.

And then things started to change. Hampton Bays resident Brigid Maher organized the Between the Bays Community Association to study the issue and help guide a safe way forward. With the help of lots of local talent, an environmental engineer, a graduate chemist, an emergency management executive, a forensic accountant, fire officers and systems experts, we went to school on BESS and found they were not quite the good neighbors they were promoted to be. That was further proven by a rash of BESS fires across New York State.

We brought our case to the planning and town boards, where Councilwoman Cyndi McNamara spoke up for the people of Hampton Bays. The moratoriums followed. And then, led by new Supervisor Maria Moore, came the decision to thoroughly evaluate the criteria for siting BESS facilities. That is the current work being tackled objectively and systematically by the BESS Steering Committee.

While the Canal BESS advocates fume and hint at legal action on behalf of their Singapore hedge-fund backers, they have no one to blame but themselves for trying to slip one past us.

Bill Muir

Hampton Bays