“I think it is not a good idea to put this (battery energy storage systems) so close to so many important things,” said Silver Creek High School student Molly Shaw. She and her parents spoke at a public hearing regarding the proposed 250 MW Northland Power Ball Hill BESS that was held last week by the town of Hanover in Silver Creek.

More than 75 residents attended including County Legislator Tom Harmon. They were overwhelmingly opposed to the project because of concerns for the health and safety of their community. At the three-hour hearing, residents expressed alarm at the many recent thermal runaway fires and toxic gas plumes occurring at battery energy storage facilities in New York, Arizona, California and elsewhere.

Citing the Moss Landing, Calif., thermal runaway fire residents noted the Moss Landing BESS has burned for a month. One former Hanover firefighter said, “BESS has a bad track record. The developers are just crossing their fingers – consider the toxicity of hydrofluoric acid.” Monterey Bay residents are suffering chemical burns to skin, eyes, lungs and nasal passages, shelter in place and evacuations as a result of toxic hydrogen fluoride which becomes hydrofluoric acid in lungs.

Hanover residents who spoke live in close proximity to the proposed facility, their children go to school nearby and the evacuation route from the school is the road on which the facility would be located.

Among the speakers was Shaw. She said, “I go to Silver Creek High School, my brother is in the sixth grade at that school, my sister in the eighth grade. My home is down the road a quarter-mile away. I am on the cross country team. I run and train there. I attended the last town board where you said that you value the future of Silver Creek and that you wanted our input. It was important to me to come tonight and give my input. I don’t feel safe.

“I think it is not a good idea to put this so close to so many important things.”

Many Hanover residents described their bad experience of living across from solar projects and wind turbines. They asked “What have been the benefits to the town?” saying, “We have to look at these monstrosities, we pay higher utility bills and higher taxes and our property values have dropped.” They cited the lack of a state Emergency Preparedness Plan for residents near energy storage systems.

Hanover Supervisor Lou Pelleter expressed concern for the potential danger citing his experience fighting chemical spills, helping with evacuation, and dealing with contamination as a first responder in the town over the years.

Trustee Bernard Feldmann Jr. said, “What are we looking at regarding safety concerns, and regarding EMS? The school is close. What if there were more than one fire call? Then what? As a first responder this is a concern.”

One resident asked, “Where does the $270,000 payment to the town come from?”

Northland answered, “It comes directly from the state.”

She continued, “That is our tax money. So you are taking our money and then giving it back to build this? Also you are asking for more money in the form of PILOT? That comes from our local taxes.”

She pointed out that Northland Power, which built Ball Hill Wind, hired out-of-town workers to build the 600 toot turbines in Villenova and it was Northland that had to dynamite the faulty turbine bases and start over in Villenova.

When on demand electricity production is reestablished — hydro, now being curtailed by the state in favor of wind and solar, SMR and advanced dual cycle gas power — there will be no need and no false justification for dangerous, expensive, short lived BESS.

To protect our communities from speculators and from incidents such as the battery energy storage system thermal runaway fire, explosion and toxic contamination at Moss Landing, the legislature can issue a county wide moratorium on Battery Energy Storage Systems, allowing our small towns to pursue “important things.”

Karen Engstrom is a Mayville resident.