East Hampton residents who live near toxic plume urge health screenings

East Hampton residents who live around a battery storage plant suspected of causing a toxic plume after a 2023 fire are asking the state to provide health screening amid worries they may have ingested impacted water for years.

But the state Health Department, in responses to Newsday, said it doesn’t believe such biomonitoring “would be useful.” It instead is offering to take residents' questions and concerns directly via email or phone.

Residents concerned about the impacts of the water say that's not enough. 

"It's unconscionable, that's what I think," said Charlie Esposito, who lives directly across the street from the battery site and is one of the residents who pressed East Hampton town to demand health testing.

In a letter sent to state and county agencies Thursday following an occasionally heated public meeting last week, Town of East Hampton Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez wrote that residents who consume water from private and public wells are “concerned they have been ingesting” water laden with forever chemicals for “over three years.”

“How can the New York State Department of Health facilitate regular medical testing and health monitoring of residents?” she asked in the letter, which was sent to the state Health Department and Suffolk Water Authority and county health officials. “Residents have specifically requested biomonitoring, PFAS blood testing to establish a baseline for future tests, and a formal epidemiologic study.”

In response to Newsday questions, state Health Department spokeswoman Erin Clary said that while the agency “remains committed to working with local officials to ensure residents have safe and healthy” drinking water, it didn't believe biomonitoring would be useful.

“Fortunately, Suffolk County Water Authority took swift and appropriate actions to minimize use of the affected wellfield for drinking water after PFPrA was detected, reducing the potential harm to the water supply,” the state Health Department said in its statement, referring to a toxic forever chemical. “Because of this, and the fact that the scientific literature of similar PFAS compounds shows PFPrA is unlikely to build up in the human body from ongoing exposures," the agency "does not feel that biomonitoring would be useful to understand past exposures.”

Residents can email the state department at BTSA@health.ny.gov, or call (518) 402-7800.

Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine on Friday said, "I absolutely support" health testing by the state for residents who may be impacted. He said the county is planning a forum for East Hampton residents Sept. 23 to discuss all its findings, which he said are publicly available. He encouraged anyone in East Hampton to call the county at 631-852-5810 for a free test of their water. 

The town didn't immediately respond to Newsday questions Friday.

Suffolk County has tested dozens of private wells around the battery storage site, but thus far has not detected levels above a new preliminary state screening level for the site of 3 parts per billion, and Suffolk water authority residents are not drinking water from impacted wells, the agency said.

Newsday first reported on the plume following the May 31 filing of a lawsuit by the Suffolk County Water Authority against the battery developer, owners National Grid and NextEra and the manufacturer. The water authority in the spring shut down two critical East Hampton supply wells and put two others on partial shutdown, but hasn’t used them since, heightening a water crisis in the Hamptons at the height of the summer heat. 

Dan Dubois, a spokesman for the water authority, said the agency has received the town's letter and plans to respond in coming days.

As Newsday has reported, the authority developed a test for the PFPrA toxin and four others and began sampling water for it in January. It has shared test results with entities including the town and made its lab director available to discuss results. The first hits of PFPrA were detected in the public wells in East Hampton in April, prompting the well shutdown. 

Large battery storage facilities are part of the state’s vision for a green-energy grid that also includes wind and solar energy. The 2023 battery fire in East Hampton and three others upstate led Gov. Kathy Hochul to form a working group that ultimately determined “no harmful levels of toxins detected” following probes by the DEC, which did not test groundwater in East Hampton. This summer, Hochul ordered the group to reform after recent studies showed toxins around the East Hampton plant — up to 1,170 parts per billion, according to new Suffolk County well reports.

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

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