Southampton Town Exploring Options for Future of Generator Site Village Has Eyed for Sewer Plant

Consultants working for New York State and Southampton Town envision a fossil fuel driven “peaker” power plant on David Whites Lane in Southampton being replaced someday by a new light industrial complex, a “green commerce” park or a renewable energy power station — but not a sewage treatment plant, as Southampton Village had considered.

The consultants this week unveiled three proposed alternative uses for the 8.6-acre property that they crafted after nearly a year of analysis of the property, which is currently owned by National Grid and will for the foreseeable future be home to a giant gas powered generator that is used to feed extra electricity into the grid at times of high demand. It runs for about 200 hours per year.

But with New York state’s goal of eliminating fossil fuel powered electrical generation by 2040, the New York State Sustainable Energy Research and Development Authority, or NYSERDA, has begun deploying consultants to help communities decide what should be done with the power plants in their borders in anticipation of their ultimate elimination.

“There is no plan to close this plant in the near future,” Simon Kates, one of the consultants, told a small audience at Southampton Town Hall on Tuesday. “We are here to think about what the community of Southampton would like to see when that day comes.”

The three alternatives the consultants envisioned ranged from the practical need for light industrial space, like on nearby Mariner Drive, to the anticipated need for more renewable energy power sources, to a more passive community use aimed at supporting what is expected to be a new green energy industry.

The “green commerce” park could be home to manufacturing facilities for renewable energy company, an actual solar power generation farm and an education center, interwoven with tree lined walking trails, a conceptual sketch of the idea showed.

The light industrial district would be the most straight forward, with room for eight new commercial lots of about 1 acre each, much like on Mariner Drive. Such parcels are in short supply on the South Fork and in high demand.

If it was deemed important to keep the property as a power generating facility, an “air source” thermal energy pump and thermal energy storage facility could be built on the land.

The consultants made no reference to the search for a suitable site for a sewage treatment plant to serve a sewer system that Southampton Village has been working on for more than a decade. The National Grid property, which sits just across the village border along the LIRR tracks north of County Road 39, had been the most hopeful of the possible sites the village has identified.

The property is zoned for light industrial use and is still largely wooded. The consultants have been working with steering committee since last fall on the proposals and will present a final package of recommendations for its future use in September.