By Scott Brinton
This last Friday, DEC spokesman Mark Lowery told the Herald that the department has waited until now to see whether the village would voluntarily shut down the plant, whose exhaust residents fear might cause cancer.
That is, in part, why the DEC has delayed public hearings over Plant No. 2's revised, more-stringent operating permit, which the department wrote last summer, said Lowery. Additionally, he said DEC officials must sift through an enormous volume of complex public testimony that it has received before proceeding with hearings.
Freeport could close Plant No. 2 under an agreement that the village is now apparently negotiating. The possible deal would bring in an outside electric provider to build two gas-fired turbines at the Plant No. 2 site.
Last Wednesday, however, Freeport Electric Superintendent Hubert Bianco is reported to have said during a Public Service Commission hearing that the village is waiting for the DEC to decide upon Plant No. 2's revised permit.
Then, Bianco said Freeport would determine whether it would shut down the plant's two 1969 diesel ship engines, according to Joseph Kralovich of Merrick and Vincent Greco of Freeport, two civic activists who testified at the rate-increase hearing and have led the battle against the plant.
Kralovich and Greco fear that the village will do nothing over Plant No. 2, which still operates, until the DEC moves forward with the hearings and enacts a permit that could force the plant to close. Greco, a retired engineer, calculated that the plant cannot meet the new particulate (soot) standard in the proposed permit. In the plant's current permit from the DEC, there is no such provision.
The two activists also believe that the DEC is negligent in delaying the permit hearings. Speaking of the department, Greco said, "I'd say they're not doing their job. Their job is to protect the public and not hold it in limbo."
The first legislative hearing over the permit, at which anyone could speak, was Oct. 22. An issues conference was to have taken place the next day to determine what evidence could be presented during an adjudicatory hearing. At that hearing, the two sides -- the DEC and Freeport -- would be allowed to call witnesses, similar to a trial.
The issues conference, however, was put off until November to give the DEC more time to modify the permit slightly at the request of residents. To date, that conference has not taken place, nor has one been scheduled. And the DEC still has not released changes to the permit.
The DEC is in a tough position, said Lowery. If it moves forward with the permit hearings, it might then face a legal battle with the village that could run two to three years. Such a fight, which Freeport has vowed to wage, could be avoided if the village agrees to close the plant on its own.
In December, Richard Kessel, chairman of the Long Island Power Authority, and state Sen. Charles Fuschillo Jr. (R-Merrick) said the village had signed a "letter of intent" to shut down the diesel engines. That letter, though, has not been released to the public to date.
Lowery also noted that Freeport has not wavered in its pledge to fight the new permit. "They haven't given us any indication their position to oppose the permit will change," the spokesman said.
That leaves Kralovich wondering why the DEC is waiting to move forward with the permit hearings. "All we ever intended," he said, "was for the DEC to make a judgement about Plant No. 2 and write a permit that abides by the law. That's all we want, and we'll live with the consequences. If [Freeport officials] try to wiggle out of it, we'll fight them again."
Keri Powell, staff attorney for the New York Public Interest Research Group, said, "I think it's irresponsible of DEC to allow the plant to continue operating when it knows it's violating the law.
"If DEC does not feel ready to issue a revised operating permit for Plant No. 2, DEC should step in and revoke the existing permit for the Freeport plant. DEC should not allow the Freeport plant to operate until it can demonstrate that it can operate in compliance with the law."
Powell also noted that, once the DEC enforces the new permit, Plant No. 2's 1998 permit would be revoked automatically. Freeport could continue fighting the revised permit by appealing it in the courts. During this time, however, the new permit would remain in effect.
To residents fighting Plant No. 2, Powell offered these words: "It takes a lot of staying power to win a battle like this. They need to stick with the process, pay attention to the details, keep coming to meetings, and keep demanding that both our elected and regulatory officials answer our question and defend their actions."
