Suffolk expanding testing of toxic plume near East Hampton battery plant

Suffolk County officials on Tuesday announced an expansion of their plan to test a toxic plume near a battery storage plant in East Hampton, while disclosing separate plans to test other toxic sites on the East End.

Speaking near Georgica Pond in East Hampton, Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine expressed frustration with the pace and methods of a state-led investigation of the East Hampton plume, which forced the Suffolk County Water Authority to shut down some drinking water wells and led to a summer water shortage.

Romaine, a Republican, challenged the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s position that the origin of the plume remains unknown, and called for the state to expedite a remediation plan before the plume spreads farther.

"This contamination began with battery storage here in East Hampton," Romaine said. "We’re very concerned about that."

The DEC in its community bulletin last week wrote "no source of the contamination has been determined by the state at this time."

The agency has said it did not order groundwater tests after the 2023 thermal-runaway fire at the battery plant, which led to 1.4 million to 2.2 million gallons of soot-tainted water to run off-site, because soil borings taken four months after the fire showed no contaminants in excess of state standards.

DEC representatives didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Most residents in the area of the plume are connected to public drinking water from the water authority, which is sourcing its water from more distant wells. There are about 30 private wells in the area.

In addition to announcing the Suffolk Health Services Department is testing surface water in Georgica Pond, Georgica Cove and three other ponds, Suffolk announced it will install six additional wells on Buckskill Road just south of the water authority’s drinking wells. To date, Suffolk has drilled nine wells, "and we’re going to be sinking more."

Results to date, Romaine said, have been "off the charts" at test wells adjacent to homes on Wireless Road and Cove Hollow Road just south of the plant, though residents’ private wells have not yet exceeded a 3 parts per billion screening limit set by the state health department. Suffolk wells have shown levels up to 1,170 parts per billion, along with levels of another forever chemical, PFOS, well above drinking water standards, Newsday has reported. 

"Based on this we are expanding our investigation," Romaine said. "We are going to be testing not only the groundwater, but we also are going to be testing the surface water in Georgica Pond, Georgica Cove, in Hook Pond, Lily Pond and others. Why? Because when you put 2.2 million gallons of water in a short period of time it goes into the groundwater  and obviously it got contaminated in that process and has impacted drinking water."

Attending the event was Suffolk’s top health and water quality officials, East Hampton Mayor Jerry Larsen and the county attorney, Christopher Clayton, whom Romaine said was there because the county is considering its legal options. The water authority has sued the plant owners, a company owned jointly by National Grid and NextEra, and the battery maker, LG Energy Solution.

"With our county attorney we are now looking at this," he said. The water authority owns its well fields, but "the general public owns the aquifer, that’s the general drinking water we all have ... This drinking water in this area is now severely impacted. We are probably going to be acting on the general public’s behalf to seek remediation."

Sites in Sag Harbor that have garnered Suffolk County’s attention include the former Bulova Watch Case Factory Superfund site on Main Street and the former National Grid-owned manufactured gas plant on Bridge Street. The DEC recently reported contamination at the former MGP site. National Grid cleaned up the adjacent site more than a decade ago.

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.