East Hampton town to sue Cove Hollow, Montauk BESS plants

East Hampton Town’s attorneys have the green light to seek a court order to shut down the battery energy storage systems, or BESS, in East Hampton and Montauk until a toxic fire suppression chemical is removed from both.

While the town has not yet filed paperwork to sue, the litigation would likely seek the removal of the BESS facilities’ fire suppression agent, NOVEC 1230, from both BESS plants and the remediation of contaminated groundwater, which the fire suppressant is said to have caused.

Just last month, the State Department of Environmental Conservation pinpointed NOVEC 1230 as the likely source of contamination in the groundwater near the BESS on Cove Hollow Road in East Hampton. The gaseous fire suppressant, when mixed with water, can break down into the so-called “forever chemical” known as PFPrA — the same ultrashort-chain PFAS detected in the area earlier this year.

“I said then that there is still work to be done, and that we will continue asking questions, following the science, taking actions where necessary and making sure our community has the information it needs,” East Hampton Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez said.

The Town Board passed a resolution at a meeting on October 1 that authorized litigation against the operators of both BESS plants and the owners of the underlying properties. Rigano LLC, a firm that works closely with the town on environmental litigation, has been retained to handle the litigation at an amount not to exceed $50,000.

This followed a list of demands from Burke-Gonzalez, going back to August, that escalated quickly over the past week or so — following the DEC’s preliminary report that tied the BESS’s fire suppression system to the water contamination.

Burke-Gonzalez, on September 29, sent a final letter to the operators, NextEra Energy. The supervisor asked the company to begin remediation at the Cove Hollow BESS facility, stop using NOVEC 1230 at both plants, remove the fire suppressant entirely from East Hampton Town, confirm that alternate fire safety measures are in place and shut down the plant until that has occurred.

“That has not occurred,” Burke-Gonzalez said two days later on October 1. “Therefore, I’m offering a resolution tonight that will take affirmative steps to accomplish what we have called for. This is a resolution authorizing the commencement of litigation regarding the battery energy storage facilities located at 3 Cove Hollow Road, East Hampton, New York, and 10 North Shore Road, Montauk, New York, and approving an attorney retainer agreement.”

A message sent to the NextEra Energy press office on Friday was not returned. But on the night the Town Board gave the green light for litigation, a letter from a representative of the BESS facility hit Burke-Gonzalez’s inbox.

East Hampton Energy Storage Center Vice President Gary Morris said his organization has agreed to disable NOVEC 1230 from both sites — though he said the company needs to ensure it can be safely disabled and removed. The plan, according to Morris, is to contract a fire suppression engineer to provide a report, a copy of which would go to town officials, and remove the NOVEC 1230 within a day of the report’s completion.

Morris said the owners and operators of both BESS facilities plan to work to address the issues raised by town officials, cooperate with the DEC in its investigation and provide the information necessary to have productive discussions among the stakeholders.

But the BESS plants will still remain open in the face of now-unified calls for a shutdown from East Hampton Village, East Hampton Town and Suffolk County leadership.

“In the meantime, the companies intend to continue to safely operate the Facilities consistent with their existing permits, all of which the town approved,” Morris said. “The town’s September 29, 2026 letter identifies no basis for its request that the facilities cease operations by October 2, 2026, and we are aware of none.”

All of this began in May 2023, when the BESS plant caught fire and over a million gallons of water, mixed with the NOVEC 1230, were said to have seeped into the groundwater. The response to that fire has been described as a hands-off one, in which the internal sprinkler systems ran for around 30 hours, by first responders.

Earlier this year, the Suffolk County Water Authority detected the so-called “forever chemical” in amounts exceeding New York State guidelines in two of its wells about a quarter mile from the BESS facility — a discovery that sprung local, county and state officials into action. The water authority pulled both wells from service and switched the other two wells at the site to emergency use.

East Hampton Village Mayor Jerry Larsen, who has actively called for a shutdown, said he has received no correspondence from the town about the litigation — but said the village’s lawyers have been looking at seeking a court injunction separately. They have not gotten to the stage of litigation yet, but Larsen still supports a shutdown.

“To me, it’s a no-brainer,” Larsen said. “This place is an environmental accident waiting to happen — again.”