PSEG Okayed for Transformer and Underground Cable in Village

In an uncharacteristically noncontroversial move, PSEG Long Island, which has angered residents of East Hampton with the installation of a transmission line and the attendant utility poles through some residential neighborhoods, construction at a substation in Amagansett, and electricity-delivery rates that it hopes to raise substantially, applied for and was quickly granted a freshwater wetlands permit to replace a transformer and install an underground cable in the Village of East Hampton.

The village's zoning board of appeals, to which the utility had applied for the permit, adopted a negative declaration pursuant to the State Environmental Quality Review Act, finding that no significant environmental impact would result from the action. The board then granted the permit. The State Department of Environmental Conservation has also granted permission for the project.

The transformer to be replaced, which a PSEG official told the board at a prior meeting is past its useful life, is on the easterly side of Egypt Lane approximately 150 feet south of the intersection with Fithian Lane. The utility will install 520 feet of underground cable within a portion of the right of way of Fithian Lane, which will require the digging of a 222-by-2-foot trench extending 50 feet to the east and 172 feet to the west of an existing culvert, and three other drill pits for cable to the west of the trench.

The work will necessitate the disturbance of a 10-by-10-foot area, most of which is wetlands, on the westerly side of Egypt Lane. Representatives of the utility promised that the disturbed areas would be reseeded and restored to their original condition.

Jeffrey Weir, a spokesman for PSEG Long Island, said that a construction schedule would be determined in the coming weeks.