Battery Storage Fire Raises Environmental Safety Concerns

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning. Well, those windmills on Long Island, they’re not doing us very much good. And with us today is Bonnie Brady, and she’s the policy director of the New England Fishermen’s Association. And Bonnie, you are. You’ve been trying to defend the coastline, You’ve been defending the fishermen, you’ve been defending the whales, and looks like we’re making some progress.

0:29 Can you tell all Americans what’s going on?

0:35 Speaker 2 Well right now, John, I’m down in DC. I was walking the halls a bit with my director of advocacy, Jason Joyce, and we were part of the Capitol Hill Ocean Week, which takes place every year. So we did have a lovely billboard signed thanking President Trump for his efforts to stop off shore wind and that we look

0:55 at it as incredibly destructive and basically fishermen are at war with offshore wind. So we made it very clear that line in the sand as to how we feel about it. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but usually when they build an offshore wind farm, they then and most of Long Island I think, has been fighting these

1:15 when they bring the cables in. In addition to going into whatever new power plant or updated power plant they have to do, they usually add a battery energy storage system or what they refer to as a best with it.

1:27 So I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but back in twenty three they put a five megawak facility in East Hampton from Southwark wind Farm. It cooked in twenty twenty three and the entire thing burned. It wasn’t like moss landing, It didn’t escape and explode. However, they said that in order to put it out they have

1:49 to put a mist. We basically, these battery energy storage centers are lithium ion based and they had this nasty little habit of catching fire. It’s called thermal run way, and that’s exactly what happened. Within nine months of them building the facility. They were able to suppress the fire by using a heavy duty missing. About two point two

2:10 million gallons of water were used over several day period to stop it from exploding. But when we had a local advocate named Si Kinsella who had been fighting the project for a very long time, ask about, well is the DEEC going to test the soil? What’s going on here?

2:28 These things don’t have what they referred to as catchment systems, so when the water goes to mist, it just goes out of the building and down into the groundwater. And on Tuesday, the Suffolk County Water Authority sewed the battery plant developer because apparently it contaminated with PIFAs two wells in Bridgehampton at the height of the Hampton’s peak season.

2:53 And so they’re suing in court for damages and legal fees for the company that owns them, which of course is an LLC. So they’ll probably close doors and run away quickly and two point two million gallons of water contaminant into our ground water. And this is the same These things do the same thing no matter where they are.

3:15 They’re not offering catchment systems to hold onto this so it doesn’t spoil. The soil dec took a month before they showed up and did a soil sample and said, ooh, tests were inconclusive. Well don’t worry because the water got tested and in fact it leached along with the chemicals from the batteries. We’re talking hydrofluoric acid and several other

3:36 contaminants right into the water system. Wow.

3:40 Speaker 2 Not a good thing. Yeah, Wow, Wow, it’s.

3:42 Speaker 1 Right, and wow, So where do we go from here, Bonnie.

3:49 Speaker 2 Well, I mean, this is going to be a really good test case because none of these systems they are lithium iron iron iron. I can’t even speak iron type of batteries. But they are using the lithium ion instead because it’s cheap and easy. So I honestly think that this is going to be a very big deal because

4:11 if they sue, they’re fighting them all over Long Island. They want to put these in. If they sue and win for damages. I have a feeling these folks are going to close up. They’re never going to see their money.

4:22 But I think the ability I mean Long Island obviously, we’ve got a heavy duty population, we’re surrounded by water. We’ve already got water contaminants they’re going on, so now we want to add more. There’s no protection for the average homeowner anyone that consumes water in wells the way those projects are doing now. And this is part and

4:43 parcel because of why up to fifty percent tax credit as a result of the Biden administration, part of the Green New Deal. That will make you sick, unbelievable.

4:53 Speaker 1 Well, Bonnie Brady, I’m glad we’re making some progress, and would you keep us in than what else we can do.

5:02 Speaker 2 Absolutely, thank you so much, John, thank you