PSEG Abandons Plan To Bury Power Line Through Long Pond Greenbelt

PSEG Long Island has dropped plans to run a new electric cable underground through the Long Pond Greenbelt, a victory for local activists who encouraged the move at hearings this fall.

Instead, PSEG-LI plans to bypass the greenbelt entirely and lay the cable north into Sag Harbor along the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike and back down Route 114 to East Hampton.

The original project would have connected substations on the west side of the turnpike in Bridgehampton with one off Cove Hollow Road in East Hampton by the shortest possible distance — a 5.2-mile straight line along the Long Island Power Authority right-of-way, which cuts through the greenbelt.

That project was loudly opposed by neighbors and environmentalists, who said it would threaten the fragile ecosystem of the greenbelt, when it was the subject of public hearings in 2022.

The Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt, an environmental organization that advocates for the protection of the 800-plus-acre quilt of woodlands and ponds, announced PSEG’s decision in its January newsletter to members.

PSEG did not make a public announcement, but in an email sent to the Friends in December, Bill Faulk, PSEG’s regional external affairs manager for eastern Suffolk County, shared the “modified final proposed route” for the cable, which, he said, “avoids the Long Pond Greenbelt entirely by utilizing county, town and state roads.”

The new route will follow the turnpike to Jermain Avenue in Sag Harbor, where it will make a right turn and follow Jermain Avenue, then turn right on Madison Street. From there, it will run to Harrison Street, where it will cut across to Route 114 for the final leg to the Buell substation on Cove Hollow Road.

In a statement issued through its media relations department, PSEG said that as part of an environmental impact statement required for the project, several alternative routes were analyzed. “The route currently being evaluated is one of the alternatives identified in the EIS and would avoid the Long Pond Greenbelt in its entirety,” the statement read. “We will continue to evaluate the new route for feasibility and other concerns and will provide a final decision later this year.”

“It’s great news. Fantastic,” said Dai Dayton, the president of the Friends. “After so many people came out against it, I don’t see how they could have gone forward with it.”

Dayton said her group had been calling PSEG on a monthly basis to find out what its plans were. “We kept hearing nothing and nothing and nothing,” she said. “They told us they were looking into alternative routes. Finally, they told us they were not going through with the original plans.”

“The community has been heard by PSEG-LI when it comes to protecting the Long Pond Greenbelt. The public has invested tens of millions of dollars to protect the integrity of this sensitive natural resource. It would have been an unacceptable risk to that investment to construct a major transmission line through the middle of this critical habitat,” said State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. “My thanks to Dai Dayton and the Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt for their relentless advocacy. They spoke truth to power and made the difference that ensured that PSEG-LI acted responsibly.”

PSEG announced plans for a 69-kilovolt underground cable to meet the growing need for electricity on the East End in 2022. That June, hundreds of people turned out to oppose the project at a public hearing. The greenbelt, which had been stitched together through purchases by Southampton Town, The Nature Conservancy, and Suffolk County, is home to a number of rare and endangered species, including the tiger salamander. PSEG’s plans to tunnel beneath a vernal pond, prime habitat for the salamanders, was just one of many concerns raised about the project.

Later that year, at a LIPA board meeting, the project was discussed, but no action was taken. It remained on the back burner until the recent announcement that a new route was being chosen.