By Howard Goldstein
A planned conversion station at Cedar Creek County Park, which was needed for the cable plan to move ahead, was thought to be a dead project -- until now.
Maine-based Neptune Regional Transmission Systems, LLC is still seeking to build the converter station on land behind Cedar Creek off Merrick Road in Wantagh and connect it to an electrical plant in Sayerville, NJ via an undersea cable that would run through Jones Inlet and Hempstead Bay just south of Bellmore-Merrick.
A second cable buried along the Wantagh Parkway right-of-way would send electricity from Cedar Creek to a Long Island Power Authority substation on Newbridge Road in Levittown. From there, electricity would enter the LIPA grid.
Neptune officials said the project would help ease both Nassau County's power and fiscal crises, supplying much-needed electricity to 600,000 Long Island homes and giving the county $10.3 million from the sale of eight acres at Cedar Creek, plus $750,000 annually in taxes.
Residents balk
However, at the November meeting, many residents balked at the proposal, fearing possible health risks from electromagnetic fields (EMFS, which are thought to potentially cause cancer) and the proximity of a converter station to a nearby, chemically volatile sewage treatment plant. Detractors of the plan also said the converter station would destroy Cedar Creek's natural beauty.
Denenberg said that, at the November meeting, he simply wanted to present Neptune's plan to the community, and that he was prepared to carry out the public's will.
"It seems that Wantagh does not want this," he said, "and I thought the proposal was finished. I do know that there are other parcels of land in other communities. I do know that Legis. Roger Corbin [a Democrat representing Legislative District Two] wants to consider the project in his area, but Neptune seems to be insisting that it must be Cedar Creek."
Prime real estate
According to Neptune, Cedar Creek is the best location for the project.
Company officials said that, while they will not ignore their critics, last November's public meeting did not necessarily represent the entire community. "A meeting like that draws mainly the opposition," Neptune CEO Paul Rich said.
Rich said the company is seeking to meet with other groups not present at the meeting, as well as sit down in small groups with the opposition. Neptune has also hired a public-relations agent, Patricia Maher, a Democrat from East Meadow who has run for various elective offices.
"We've been trying to reach out to the community and educate people," Rich said, "and there has been tremendous support and encouragement in the community to keep it up."
In November, residents also expressed concern about fire safety at the converter station. Rich said local fire officials generally looked on the project favorably, while civic leaders said that simply wasn't true.
Wantagh Fire Chief Jim Johnstone said that, last fall, it was too early to take a position on the project.
"It's a complicated issue," the chief said. "Nothing in the proposal jumped out at us as an unusual hazard, so we are still open to the possibility, though we certainly have not backed it, either."
Johnstone advised both sides and the whole community to give the fire department time to do its job and determine the risks.
The Chamber of Commerce of Seaford has taken a similar position. "We've made no commitment, but we are listening," said member and immediate past President Curtis Schmitt.
Health and safety
Neptune officials said the public's health and safety concerns are top priorities, and that the entire project has been planned with this in mind.
According to Neptune, EMFs would not be a concern, first because the undersea cable would send direct current to Wantagh. DC does not emit EMFs.
The converter station would transform the direct current to alternating current, which does give off EMFs and powers Long Island. According to Neptune officials, any EMFs from the converter would dissipate by the time they reached the station's edge. Additionally, they said, the converter would be located behind a sewage-treatment plant, away from homes.
Finally, Neptune officials said, the company would have to meet
strict New York State standards for EMF emissions.
To prove the plan safe, Neptune has offered to fly community activists and fire officials to Belfast, Ireland, where a currently running station would serve as Neptune's model. To date, no one has accepted the offer.
One plan
As far as another location goes, the prognosis looks grim. According to Neptune, engineering systems analysts continue to advocate Cedar Creek.
Extending the cable beyond Cedar Creek would be cost prohibitive, Neptune executives said. "It is much cheaper to run cable in the ocean than on land," Rich said.
"The current plan calls for 38 miles of cable. Increasing that by 1 percent on land would cost tens of millions, and cause too much disruption to put in," he said.
Vicky Rosenberg, president of the Wantagh Civic Association, is among those residents who, in addition to health concerns, sees the converter station project as a potentially gross violation of the public trust.
Rosenberg, who along with Cedar Creek Health Risk Assessment Committee Chairwoman, Christine Marzigliano, met several times with Rich, reiterated there is a tacit agreement between Wantagh and the county. After the sewage treatment plant, there would be no other development at Cedar Creek.
"This [the proposed Neptune project] is violating the sanctity of promises made and the public confidence," she said.
"After the bitter battle of the sewage plant, the promise to keep industry off of Cedar Creek was honored ever since. This whole process is backwards. Neptune is currently seeking permits from LIPA when the community is still fighting it. Rich claims that the county advised him to get permitting worked out with LIPA."
LIPA offered no comment about the cable plan at this time.
Marzigliano also complained that, while Seaford would also be affected by the project, Wantagh schools would get all the tax revenue, to the tune of 65 percent of all the annual receipts collected from the station.
Although power to Long Island and increased revenues are needed, Rosenberg said that officials who renege on county promises not to develop Cedar Creek would sign their political death warrants.
"There will be a firestorm if this promise is ignored," she said.
Marzigliano described a new plant as "a dangerous precedent."
"Even if this particular project is safe, it sets a trend towards breaking promises and turning residential areas into industrial parks," she said.
