East Hampton wants 2 battery plants shut down pending new fire systems

East Hampton Town is demanding that the owners of two East-End battery-energy storage plants, including one impacted by forever chemicals, cease operations of LIPA-contracted facilities in East Hampton and Montauk by Friday until new fire suppression systems are in place.

The demand follows a meeting between town officials and co-battery owner NextEra earlier this week, and revelations by the state earlier this month that a fire-suppression system was responsible for toxic contamination discovered at one of the sites earlier this year.

In a letter to battery owner NextEra on Tuesday, a copy of which was obtained by Newsday, East Hampton Town supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez wrote that the town remains "deeply concerned" about the "pace and scope" of actions being taken by the owners to "protect the health and safety" of town residents and the environment.

Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine and East Hampton Village Mayor Jerry Larsen have previously called for the East Hampton facility on Cove Hollow Road to cease operations, Newsday reported. NextEra spokesman Chris Curtland at the time said NextEra remains "committed to working with local and state officials on the investigation. The project is operating safely."

NextEra and East Hampton didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Newsday reported in May that the plant was the subject of a federal lawsuit by the Suffolk County Water Authority concerning forever chemicals from the East Hampton plant that affected drinking water wells. New York State has since determined that the toxins known as PFPrA were the result of a fire suppression system used during a May 2023 thermal runaway fire at the facility that took 30 hours to get under control.

No agency, state or local, or NextEra has released information about the cause of the fire. Earlier this week, the state Department of Environmental Conservation in an email told Newsday it "does not have the authority to regulate the design or operations at the [East Hampton] facility, nor does DEC have the authority to investigate causes of a fire beyond the environmental impacts it may have caused."

In her letter to NextEra, Burke-Gonzalez referenced a Sept. 25 meeting she had with battery-plant officials, noting that the company said it could remove all "Novec 1230" fire suppression equipment from both the East Hampton and Montauk battery plants in two weeks, and to take the system’s automatic fire-suppression system offline even sooner.

But Burke-Gonzalez said the town would not approve that modification to the fire suppression systems "without a detailed report from a qualified engineer confirming that water alone is sufficient to extinguish any fire at the facility.

East Hampton also requested that the company take "immediate" interim remedial measures to ensure the safety of residents around the plant, including excavation and off-site disposal of "all impacted soil," demanding that the soil be removed to a licensed facility outside of East Hampton Town.

East Hampton also is demanding that soil and groundwater sampling be done at five-foot intervals around the plant "to determine whether additional remedial measures are necessary," including remediating groundwater. Tests by the state and Suffolk County have shown PFPrA at upward of 10,000 parts per billion, well above a site-specific screening level set by the state Department of Health of 3 parts per billion, Newsday has reported.

"In the interim," Burke Gonzalez wrote, "and until Novec 1230 [fire suppression system] has been taken offline under an approved alternative fire-suppression plan and the required remediation at the 3 Cove Hollow Road facility has been completed, the affected facilities should cease operations by Friday, Oct. 2, 2026."

The town, she wrote, "does not believe continued operation is appropriate while these unresolved risks remain."

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

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