Cards have been mailed to residents of the Town of Southampton that announce the construction of a battery energy storage site in Hampton Bays, and that contain a website address that directs recipients to sign a petition supporting the facility.
Do not sign this petition. The site will contain 30 van-sized enclosures with 720 lithium battery storage units.
It appears that the cards did not go to residents of Hampton Bays.
Southampton Town residents, you need to wake up. This is the first of hundreds of zoning-approved locations that can be converted to battery energy storage sites in your neighborhoods. The Climate Action Plan of the town obviously allows that. There is no provision for neighborhood opposition.
The chutzpah of the Canal Southampton Battery Storage LLC developer, and possibly the owner of the land that they wish to build on, is astonishing.
Notwithstanding the overwhelming opposition of Hampton Bays residents and the overwhelming negative fact-finding that precipitated a Town Board moratorium to reconsider the matter, these individuals march on.
I subscribe to an energy storage newsletter. In every issue, there are one or more pictures of BESS locations. They are all in rural areas away from businesses and residences.
Why they are there is obvious: the danger of an “accident” that can poison the air and any bodies of water nearby, set fires to residences and businesses, and set forests ablaze. Moreover, there is a noise factor as well.
In the case of the Hampton Bays location, a BESS “accident” would cut off the entire South Fork road network, and the water necessary to contain an “accident” could run off and pollute the nearby Shinnecock Canal and bays.
Get involved. Attend meetings of the Southampton Town Board and the Hampton Bays Civic Association to oppose this ill-thought-out debacle. Your involvement is necessary. You cannot wish this away.
Philip Metzger
Hampton Bays
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