Suffolk to do testing over fears that toxins from plant fire could reach aquifer

With preliminary results of private water wells showing high levels of a forever chemical near a battery-storage plant, Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine on Tuesday said the county would begin more extensive testing because of concerns that toxins from a 2023 fire at the site in East Hampton could migrate to the deeper aquifer. 

"We're concerned about the overall aquifer," Romaine said in an interview Tuesday, noting the county had already begun testing of private wells. "If the well fields are affected, we're concerned it could affect the aquifer. We're conducting tests to see how affected the aquifer is." 

The county has been visiting homeowners with private wells around the site, and seven of a potential 26 wells have been tested. Preliminary results indicate the presence of a PFAS substance known as PFPrA and PFOS at more than 1,000 parts per billion, according to a source, well above drinking-water standards. 

Earlier this month, Newsday reported the Suffolk County Water Authority filed a federal lawsuit against the owners of the utility-size battery energy storage facility in East Hampton, charging the energy companies contaminated nearby water wells in their effort to suppress a 2023 thermal-runaway fire at the plant. The state also is investigating.

Discovery of toxins in nearby water wells allegedly from the battery fire forced the authority to shutter two East Hampton wells at the height of the Hamptons peak season and to limit the use of two others. The toxins will result in millions of dollars in expenses to treat or replace the wells, according to the suit filed in U.S. District Court in Central Islip.

The wells are 2,500 feet south of the Cove Hollow Road battery facility, which has been rebuilt and back in operation since July 2024. The site in May 2023 experienced battery fire that released at least 2.2 million gallons of toxin-soaked soot into an uncontained area around the site.

This week, water-storage tanks attached to the ground have appeared at the battery site as state and local agencies attempt to gauge the full extent of a toxic plume the local water company says has contaminated four drinking water wells.

East Hampton Village Mayor Jerry Larsen said he recently visited the site and photographed trucks containing water tanks, but said he’s yet to receive an explanation about the equipment and its purpose.

"I personally drove up there and found the trailer doors wide open," Larsen told Newsday Tuesday. "I did research and it appears they are filtering water out of the ground, and sending it back in" at the facility, which is owned by NextEra and National Grid.

Asked if the water authority was aware of water filtering at the site, Dan Dubois, a water authority spokesman, said, "We don't know what they're doing and it's not for us to comment on." 

A spokesman for NextEra didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the water tanks or the cleanup, and National Grid declined comment. 

The water authority has created a website to inform residents about the plume and its impact at www.scwa.com/easthamptonbattery. In a letter, authority chief executive Jeff Szabo, indicated the wells out of service were putting pressure on the system. 

"We need all residents, especially those in East Hampton, to conserve water to maintain an adequate supply throughout our system," he wrote, advising customers to follow an odd/even lawn-watering schedule based on their home address schedule and to "take practical steps to reduce your water use." 

Dubois said the authority continues to test the water to check for impacts. "Our customers can rest assured that we are doing everything to provide them the highest quality water," he said. 

Larsen, meanwhile, took exception to the suggestion last week by East Hampton Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez that officials were examining another event as a possible cause of the contamination. During a town board meeting at which she was challenged by a resident for not testing the water previously, Burke-Gonzalez said the investigation of the plume "is examining more than one possibility."

Burke-Gonzalez said she had been told the DEC is examining the site of a 2005 small plane crash at which firefighting foam containing forever chemicals was also used.

Larsen said he’d been told state officials are not considering that site, which he attended when he was police chief, as a possible cause, noting it’s several thousand feet to the east of the contaminated drinking water wells and an unlikely source of that contamination.

Dubois declined to comment on the plane-crash site and its possible impact on water quality. 

A spokesman for Burke-Gonzalez didn’t respond to questions about whether the supervisor would order new tests for wells around the crash site.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation didn’t respond to Newsday questions.

Gov. Kathy Hochul in 2023 released a statement saying "no harmful levels of toxins" were found at the East Hampton facility and two other sites that experienced fires in 2023, though the DEC did not order the site owners to undertake groundwater tests at East Hampton. A state spill investigation was closed in 2024.

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

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