The East Hampton Trails Preservation Society has come out against PSEG Long Island’s proposal to construct a substation on Suffolk County parkland in Montauk’s Hither Woods, saying that the facility would be constructed directly beside, if not atop, the 125-mile-long Paumanok Path.
“Nothing could be more out of place” than an industrial facility in the woods, Eva Moore, the society’s president, said in a statement issued on Tuesday.
At more than 3,000 acres of protected land, Hither Woods and Hither Hills State Park make up the largest contiguous open space on the South Fork. The East Hampton portion of the Paumanok Path, which was opened in 1998, runs for 10 miles through Hither Woods in pristine, almost-wilderness conditions, it says. The full path stretches all the way from Rocky Point to Montauk Point.
PSEG Long Island officials identified the land as a potential site for a new substation to replace the century-old Montauk substation, which juts into Fort Pond on low-lying Industrial Road. An initial proposal, to construct a new substation on residentially zoned land off Flamingo Avenue, was strenuously opposed by residents of the area, and later abandoned. The trails group did not support a substation on that site either, its statement notes.
In its statement this week, the society decries the clearing of more than five acres of forest required to construct the substation on county parkland, as well as additional clearing for an access road. Clearing would also be required for the cables that run underground to connect the substation to the grid and the utility’s Montauk customers.
“As currently proposed, PSEG’s project would severely damage one of the most scenic sections of the Paumanok Path,” the society said in its release on Tuesday. “It would also obliterate part of the historic Old North Road, a Hither Woods trail which has been used for centuries. Perhaps most importantly, it would set an extremely dangerous precedent that would open the doors to relocating other utility projects, and possibly municipal or commercial facilities, into ‘forever wild’ parkland. Such a precedent would endanger all of East Hampton Town’s preserved lands and park holdings.”
For the project to move forward in Hither Woods, PSEG would need a number of county and state approvals, including “parkland alienation” legislation from the Suffolk County Legislature that would allow the property to be removed from parkland designation.
The Suffolk County Legislature can refuse to allow its parklands to be used for a substation, the trails society pointed out, adding that under the state’s parkland alienation doctrine any conversion of parkland to non-park use must also be approved by the State Legislature.
The site was among five PSEG had looked at prior to a public information meeting in Montauk in May. Strong community opposition led to PSEG abandoning two of them. Town officials have indicated a strong preference for the Hither Hills site, with Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc pointing out that it is “more sustainable and resilient” than the other two that remain in the mix — the current substation site and one nearby, between Industrial and Navy Roads. Both are in low-lying flood-prone areas.
Lee Dion, a former president of the trails preservation society, said in Tuesday’s statement that PSEG Long Island should build the new substation on commercially zoned land it owns near the Long Island Rail Road tracks outside of Hither Woods. “PSEG has an alternative to desecrating public parkland. If they built the substation on their vacant commercial lot near the railroad, it would be better for the environment and the community as a whole.”
David Gaier, PSEG Long Island’s director of communications, did not return a call or email seeking comment yesterday.