Virtual Meeting With 'Battery Farm' Officials Set for Tonight

MAHOPAC, N.Y. — With opposition to their project growing in both Mahopac and Somers, personnel from East Point Energy — the company behind a proposed Mahopac grid-scale battery energy storage system currently before the Carmel Planning Board — will hold an online forum open to the public today (Thursday, May 2) from 6:30-8 p.m. The forum can be accessed by phone at 833-858-0011 or online by visiting EastPointVirtualMeetings.com. The session will include information about the project followed by a question-and-answer session open to the public.

Meanwhile, Somers and Mahopac residents opposed to the battery farm have continued to raise the alarm about what they believe is a dangerous project. A Facebook group called “Stop the LITHIUM Battery Farm in our Backyards in Mahopac NY!!” (sic) has 3,000 members.

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After protesters lined Route 118 on Saturday, April 20, another demonstration took place a week later in front of the Olympic Diner on Route 6 in Mahopac.

Local residents have also continued to address concerns to public officials in both Somers and Carmel. (While the actual project is in Mahopac, it abuts a residential Somers neighborhood.) Mahopac’s Lauren Rosiland returned to the microphone for the third time in three meetings at the April 17 Carmel Town Board meeting and said she would continue to speak out.

“You’re going to get pretty sick of seeing me at this podium,” Rosiland told the board, although the Town Board has no jurisdiction over the project; it is the purview of the Planning Board. “But I want to be clear, I will not rest until I know that my family, my neighbors, and our entire town are safe.”

Rosiland said she never expected to find herself spending “days and nights researching the dangers associated with the proposed lithium battery energy storage system.” She contended that breaches in the containers would lead to soil and water contamination with “toxic lithium and other substances” and that the batteries also posed the risk of fire and explosions.

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Rosiland added that putting the project in the proposed lot at 24 Miller Road, which borders NYSEG powerlines but also the homes of Baldwin Place residents on Loundsbury Drive in Somers, would lead to “habitat loss, fragmentation, and destruction of an ecosystem” in an environmentally sensitive area which includes a watershed and tributaries that lead to local lakes and reservoirs.

East Point project developer Will Frost and vice president of project development Tyler Cline told Halston Media that the company was aware of concerns aired at recent Town Board meetings both in Mahopac and Somers and wanted to address those concerns via a direct online forum with the residents.

“It’s an opportunity for us to get the word out and address any kind of questions that the community has, of which there have been several,” Cline said, adding that the company wanted “as many folks as possible [to join the virtual meeting] so we’re getting out factual information as best we can and have an opportunity to address questions and concerns.”

According to a flyer promoting the virtual forum, the goal is to “provide the general public with information about the proposed energy storage system in Mahopac.” The flyer states it will be an opportunity to hear from company representatives and subject matter experts about the project, its status in the local permitting process, its impact on the local community, and how safety concerns are being addressed.

While maintaining that the technology is safe and meets new federal standards, Cline said that East Point intends to work closely with local fire departments and is in it for the long haul.

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