Groups ask Brookhaven to form task force to develop guidelines for battery storage systems

Managers from 11 citizens’ groups and three school districts asked this week that Brookhaven Town is a task force to propose guidelines for the safe placement of large battery storage systems in the largest city of Long Island.

Her mission: “Protection of health, security and quality of life of the Brookhaven residents.”

In a letter from March 10 at the Brookhaven -Supervisor Dan Panico, the groups found that Southampton Town recently formed such a task force and that New York recommends it.

Most cities in Long Island, which are aware of past fires in the plants around the world, have moratoriums for the construction of the battery stores. Only Brookhaven and East Hampton, in which two feroes were planned, of which one of which experienced a fire in 2023 have no moratoriums.

In Brookhaven there are two battery systems despite the objections of residents nearby, and at least seven more are planned, including two Registered by Newsday Wednesday for Yapank.

The proposed Battery Task Force in Brookhaven would “develop criteria for potential locations”, including buffer zones, in order to keep the facilities in safe removal of schools, hospitals and residential areas, “said the groups in their letter. Develop a failure of a failure in the storage system. “

The concerns regarding the batteries were reinforced in January after one of the largest batteries in the world in Moss Landing, California, experienced a fire, the days for expiry and in the nearby swamp dates.

Brookhaven has a special zone for battery storage units, and the two units already under construction are located on the property in Patchogue and next to the South Service Road of the Long Island Expressway in the Morris. Panico in a Newsday story last week he said that he would delay all the new states of the city until the state completes new fire protection codes for battery systems.

The groups, including the citizens’ associations in Port Jefferson, Mount Sinai, Farmingville, Miller Place and Three Village as well as in the school districts Port Jeff, Comsewogue and three-village, said a task force could also help protect the city from legal disputes if there was an incident in one of these facilities. “

George Hoffman, a board member of the Drei-Village-Civic, said that the Task Force would give residents who live proposed plants near plants, where and how it sits. The way it is, he said: “We let developers choose wherever they go.”

In an interview on Thursday, Panico said “generally the commitment and input of the community) and if the Civics compil their own task force and want to present their findings for the city administration that they may want to record themselves.

But he said the city administration would make the final decisions about the meeting of the battery system.

“According to the law, the members of the city board are the people who are authorized to make zoning and planning,” he said.

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