Letters

As your May 18 issue commented about the status of the BESS project (lithium battery storage) proposed just off North Road and the Shinnecock Canal in Hampton Bays, which is currently before the Planning Board: “The Town Board discussed a moratorium on BESS units but has yet to take action. With this plan already well into the review process, it would have to be exempted from any mandated pause” [“Ice Cream in East Quogue, Deli Expansion, and Nail Salon on the Southampton Town Planning Board Agenda,” 27east.com, May 16].

This comment points to problems making this status unacceptable in so many ways.

People residing in the area whose homes will be permanently devalued and health possibly impacted negatively with a possibly toxic and dangerous BESS facility were never invited to attend a community meeting at which Canal Southampton Battery Storage LLC could have made a clear and understandable presentation, asking for permission to put such a facility in a residential area before purchasing property. Were they given approval by the Town Board to purchase property needing a zoning change without the community being apprised of the situation?

When did it become business as usual for planning boards, zoning boards and town boards to operate independently of the community they purportedly represent? Planning and zoning board members are not elected but appointed. They have no required qualifications or experience, but if they are party loyalists, they are in. Political patronage? Hmmm.

Are they interested in doing their best for the people of the hamlet of Hampton Bays, as much as they appear to do for other areas in town? Doesn’t appear that way.

This has become the norm. The companies were already owners of land needing approval to proceed. Now, less than a year later, the Planning Board is possibly going to give them approval to build, against community opposition. The Hampton Bays Citizens Advisory Committee voiced its opinion last year that this not be approved. Why have a CAC if the Town Board has no intention of listening to the voice of the community?

The Hampton Bays Civic Association held a very informative and well-attended community meeting that included comments from Chief Fire Marshall John Rankin that there presently is no emergency plan to address lithium battery fires, since they are extremely difficult to extinguish. The excessive quantity of water that would be sucked from our drinking water supply to try to extinguish such a fire would be enormous. The runoff from the fire would then be absorbed back into the groundwater, containing all of the toxic chemicals that define lithium batteries.

After finally hearing what was proposed, the canal project residents got hundreds of signatures against this project. They are considering legal representation.

How is it possible that our Town Board would allow this to happen?

Geraldine Spinella

Hampton Bays