By Howard Goldstein
Sharp local opposition to the project ultimately resulted in Denenberg's withdrawal of tentative support for the proposal, effectively killing it. The cable was to be constructed by Maine-based Neptune Regional Transmission System.
The purpose of the public meeting was to have a dialogue with residents and bring their ideas and concerns to the table, said Denenberg. I believe in bringing things to the people early for their consideration. Because residents were so opposed, I don't see this project going forward in Wantagh.
Denenberg said that if residents didn't want the project, their wishes would be honored. There is, he said, a longstanding, tacit agreement between the county and Wantagh residents that no other new structures besides the Cedar Creek Sewage Treatment Plant would be built in the community, at least on county land.
For the Neptune project to move forward, a five-story electrical converter would have to be built behind Cedar Creek County Park where Nassau now stores impounded cars.
Neptune was seeking to buy eight acres of county land there for $10.3 million. Denenberg's approval was needed for the sale to pass the county Legislature.
The converter would have connected to an electrical plant in Sayerville, N.J., via an undersea cable that would have run through Jones Inlet and Hempstead Bay just south of Bellmore-Merrick.
A second cable buried along the Wantagh Parkway right-of-way would have sent electricity to a Long Island Power Authority substation on Newbridge Road in Levittown. From there, it would have entered the LIPA power grid.
At Denenberg's forum, Neptune Chief Operating Officer Paul Rich gave a presentation and then opened the floor to questions and comments.
Neptune said the project would have supplied power to 600,000 Long Island homes, created 250 local jobs during construction and virtually eliminated the need for locally constructed power plants. Additionally, the county would have have collected $750,000 annually in taxes, 65 percent of which would have been earmarked for the Wantagh School District.
Residents' vehement objections to the proposed converter station, however, concerned Neptune officials, as they feared the project would quickly become mired in NIMBYist (not in my backyard) politics.
Several residents raised concerns about electromagnetic fields (EMF's) that the project might have created. In many communities around the country with high-tension electrical wires, EMF's are feared to cause cancer.
According to Neptune, EMF's would not have been a concern, first because the undersea cable would have sent direct current (DC) to Wantagh. DC does not emit EMF's.
The converter station would have transformed the direct current to alternating current, which powers Long Island and does give off EMF's. But according to Neptune officials, any EMF's from the converter would have dissipated by the time they reached the station's edge. Additionally, they said, the converter would have been located behind a sewage-treatment plant, away from homes.
Finally, Neptune officials said, the company would have had to meet strict New York state standards for EMF emissions. New York is one of only two states with EMF safety guidelines, Rich said. The level of EMF given off from our AC cables is significantly below state health standards.
There is no chemical output into the environment, he added, and the converter is totally self-contained. There is only one flammable fluid used in the entire converter, and the system has an overhead deluge system and walls that can contain a fire for three hours, which, of course, is far longer than it would ever be permitted to burn.
Melissa Chestro, an officer of the Seaford Civic Association, said, How do we know what level of EMF is really safe? There is no guarantee that even a tiny amount of EMF won't cause cancer or birth defects. Here on Long Island, we are already at the height of risk!
The converter plant would have been built on Seaford Harbor, a lightbulb-shaped peninsula with a narrow opening out of the area. Although Rich assured people that the converter was not a power plant and could not explode, residents demanded a viable evacuation plan.
There are two schools in this area, said George, a Seaford Harbor resident, and thousands of people. If there was ever a disaster, how would we ever evacuate?
Although the converter itself wouldn't be combustible, it would have been built on the land behind the Cedar Creek sewage treatment plant. There's still methane in the water, local civic activist Christine Marzigliano declared, and plenty of toxins and combustibles at the sewage plant.
Rich reiterated that the facility would have been self-contained and fire-resistant, and a Neptune spokesman addressed concerns of fire during a natural disaster.
In Los Angeles, there is a converter much larger than the one proposed for Wantagh, he said. It sustained two earthquakes and did not affect other facilities around it.
Many in the Wantagh-Seaford community, however, said they had heard such assurances in the past when a sewage-pelletization plant was proposed for their community at Cedar Creek. During their battle against the proposal, a pelletization plant blew up in New England, effectively killing plans for one in Wantagh.
Marzigliano, representing the Cedar Creek Health Risk Assessment Committee, told Rich, We have heard all about corporations' generous' and safe' proposals before, and we've learned not to listen. We do not want massive buildings and LIPA projects...This is a residential neighborhood, not an industrial park!
She continued, We just don't need this to worry about. Our air quality is already comparable to the pollution levels in a large city. The converter itself may not pollute, but what about the parent plants on the mainland that supply the power? Are we just indirectly paying for coal plants in Pennsylvania to send their pollution to Long Island?
The Sayerville plant is connected to various electrical lines in Maryland, Ohio, New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania. Rich said its power comes from a variety of sources, including hydropower, nuclear, natural gas and coal.
The environmental impact of a cable through Hempstead and Wantagh bays, two devastated and slowly recovering ecosystems, was another concern that was raised. Rich said that directional drilling would have protected the bays.
Directional drilling enters the seabed from outside a wetland and then drills horizontally, parallel to the surface. It effectively drills under the ecosystem and does not harm it or interfere, he assured residents.
Rich remains optimistic that the Neptune project can somehow move ahead in Wantagh.
I'm meeting with various local civic groups, he said. From an engineering standpoint, Cedar Creek is by far the best site for the converter. Hopefully, we can continue the dialogue with the community and see what happens.
