Two Suffolk County Water Authority drinking wells close to the intersection of Cove Hollow Road and Montauk Highway have been contaminated by so-called "forever chemicals" from the nearby East Hampton Energy Storage Center, alleges a civil suit filed by the water authority against the storage center, LG Chem, and LG Energy Solution last week in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
In response, the water authority has removed the two wells from service and restricted the use of two other nearby wells.
Patrick Derenze, the town's public information officer, said Friday morning that approximately 30 private wells will need to be tested as well.
The Suffolk County Department of Health will be offering free testing, he said. "They already sent out letters yesterday or today to those they think could have been affected. They are also knocking on doors today to inform people and offer the free testing."
A request for comment from the Health Department was not immediately returned Friday.
Mr. Derenze added that the town was not told which houses had been affected, but that New York State has testing wells north of the site, and those hadn't been impacted. The lawsuit says groundwater in that area of town flows north to south.
"I have been informed that Suffolk County Water Authority has detected contamination in the drinking water wells near Cove Hollow Road," Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez said in a statement. "We are actively coordinating with S.C.W.A., the governor's office, and the county to ensure that residents' private wells in the area are tested. We are prepared to take the lead to ensure that residents are supplied with safe drinking water. We will keep residents fully informed as we learn more."
The lawsuit specifies that the wells in question are known as the Bridgehampton Road Wells 2B, 3, 4, and 5A and that they're approximately 2,500 feet south of the energy storage facility. They contribute 7 percent of the water for the S.C.W.A. Zone 23 pressure zone, but their treatment "is not capable of effectively removing [East Hampton Energy Storage Center] contaminants, including ultrashort-chain PFAS."
The chemicals are said to have tainted the water wells after a fire broke out at the facility on May 31, 2023. The water used to extinguish it was allowed to travel off its 13.9-acre campus and seep into the ground, the suit alleges, ultimately reaching the groundwater that feeds the well.
The wells draw their groundwater from the upper glacial aquifer, from depths between 125 and 150 feet.
The water authority "brings this action to recover the substantial costs necessary to protect the public and restore its damaged drinking water supply wells, which are contaminated with the chemical perfluoropropionic acid (PFPrA), among potentially other chemicals, which were released during a fire at the East Hampton Energy Storage Center," the lawsuit reads.
The storage center is a lithium-ion battery energy storage system (known as a BESS) that provides energy to the Long Island Power Authority. During the fire, according to the lawsuit, "battery casings opened and released their contents." The large amount of water necessary to fight the fire "ran off of the facility and onto the dirt road and undeveloped area south of" the storage center, "conveying chemicals from its batteries."
The facility was built between 2017 and 2018, and operations began in August 2018.
During the fire, its fire suppression system ran for approximately 30 hours and could have released over 2.2 million gallons of water, according to court documents. However, it was not equipped with facilities to contain that amount of water.
The water authority says that the forever chemicals, specifically PFPrA, have now been detected in nearby wells at levels above the New York State "maximum contaminant level."
"There is a growing body of evidence of the toxicity of ultrashort-chain PFAS, including those detected in the Bridgehampton wells," according to the lawsuit. The water authority says that chemicals may continue to seep into the groundwater and that it is continuing to sample, monitor, and test its wells.
Outside of the Bridgehampton wells, PFPrA has been detected in only five of the water authority's active supply wells and at much lower levels than it says it found in East Hampton.
Jeffrey Szabo, the chief executive officer of the Suffolk County Water Authority, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
The water authority is seeking compensatory damages, punitive damages, and other relief.
