Environmental and Municipal Law |
East Hampton Battery Storage Shutdown: What the Novec 1230 PFAS Findings Mean for Municipalities
State regulators link PFPrA contamination in the Suffolk County Water Authority’s Buckskill Road wellfield to Novec 1230 (FK-5-1-12), a fire suppression agent released in a 2023 battery storage fire, rather than to the batteries. Municipalities should catalog every Novec 1230 system within their borders.
Two battery energy storage system (BESS) facilities in the Town of East Hampton, the East Hampton Energy Storage Center on Cove Hollow Road and the Montauk Energy Storage Center on North Shore Road, have been indefinitely shut down. The shutdown follows the State’s preliminary finding that Novec 1230, a fire suppression agent released during a 2023 fire at the Cove Hollow Road facility, rather than the lithium-ion batteries themselves, is the likely source of PFAS contamination in nearby public supply wells.
The East Hampton battery storage shutdown came less than a day after the Town Board unanimously authorized litigation and retained Rigano LLC as outside litigation counsel. The firm worked on the matter closely with Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, whose leadership in protecting the Town’s drinking water set the course from the start, and Town Attorney Jake Turner, whose sound judgment and steady guidance were invaluable throughout. Rigano LLC would like to thank the Supervisor and the Town Board for their trust and confidence on this very important matter.
The 2023 Cove Hollow Road Battery Storage Fire and PFPrA Contamination
On May 31, 2023, a fire broke out at the East Hampton Energy Storage Center, a 5-megawatt, 40-megawatt-hour battery storage facility at 3 Cove Hollow Road owned by subsidiaries of NextEra Energy and National Grid. According to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), sprinklers ran for about 30 hours, more than a million gallons of water were applied, and roughly 4,900 pounds of Novec 1230, a waterless fire suppression agent, were released into the building. Because responders used no PFAS-containing foam, no PFAS sampling followed.
Nothing tied the fire to drinking water until this year. The Suffolk County Water Authority (SCWA) detected perfluoropropionic acid (PFPrA), an ultrashort-chain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS), in its Buckskill Road wellfield south of the facility at levels above New York’s 50 parts per billion limit for unspecified organic contaminants. Those results are in parts per billion, not the parts per trillion typical of PFAS testing. In late May, SCWA sued the facility’s owner and the battery manufacturers in federal court. It has taken three of the four affected wells out of service and restricted the fourth to emergency use.
In September, DEC reported that Novec 1230 can break down into PFPrA when mixed with water, and that contaminated runoff from the fire may have entered the ground and moved south toward the wellfield. DEC found no battery-related metals in the soil. Its preliminary data show PFPrA in groundwater beside the building at up to 10,000 parts per billion (or 10,000,000 parts per trillion), against a preliminary State Department of Health screening level of 3 parts per billion. DEC has also identified the property as a potential inactive hazardous waste disposal site. Updates are posted on DEC’s East Hampton PFAS Investigation page.
What Novec 1230 (FK-5-1-12) Is and Why It Matters
Novec 1230 is 3M’s trade name for FK-5-1-12, a fluorinated ketone used as a waterless, or clean agent, fire suppressant in spaces where water would damage equipment. DEC notes that systems of this kind are installed at data centers, fuel farms, laboratories and archives, not only at battery facilities. The same agent also appears in system documentation under other names, such as Sapphire, and 3M’s commitment to exit PFAS manufacturing by the end of 2025 did nothing to remove systems already installed.
The East Hampton findings show why that matters. A discharge that leaves no visible residue can, once it meets fire water, produce a PFAS compound that moves through soil into groundwater. PFPrA has no enforceable federal or State drinking water standard, which is why the State Department of Health set a site-specific screening level for this investigation.
How East Hampton Secured the Battery Storage Shutdown
The Town did not wait for the State to finish its work. Over the summer, Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez formed a joint task force consisting of the Town, Governor Hochul’s Office, DEC, the State Department of Health, Suffolk County, SCWA and the Village of East Hampton. The Supervisor also demanded that the facility’s operator provide engineering controls capable of containing fire water and runoff, a revised emergency plan, certified technical information, a hazardous waste management plan and an independent study of whether the facility is needed for the grid. After DEC’s findings, the Town demanded that all Novec 1230 be removed from both facilities and disposed of outside the Town. On September 29, the Supervisor asked that both facilities stop operating by October 2 and called for excavation and off-site disposal of impacted soil at Cove Hollow Road, followed by endpoint sampling.
On October 1, the Town Board unanimously authorized litigation against the operators and the owners of the underlying properties. Both facilities were shut down within a day. The Town has since signed an arrangement with the operator confirming that both facilities will remain shut down indefinitely. The operator had already agreed, in response to the Town’s demands, to remove the Novec 1230 from both sites. Suffolk County has also stated that it was negotiating with the operator in parallel.
What Municipalities Should Do About Novec 1230 and Battery Storage
The first step is an immediate inventory. Every municipality should identify each Novec 1230 or FK-5-1-12 system within its borders, how much agent it holds, whether water could reach it and where that water would drain. Fire marshal permits, building department files and site plan approvals are the place to start.
Reviews of new battery energy storage facilities should look past the batteries. Approvals tend to focus on thermal runaway, setbacks and emergency access. Applicants should be required to identify every suppression agent on site, its breakdown products and what happens to it if water is applied.
On Long Island, fire water is a drinking water question. Virtually all of the Island’s drinking water comes from a federally designated sole source aquifer, and here the State’s preliminary data trace contamination from the building toward public supply wells about half a mile away. A battery fire can last far longer than a typical structure fire, and responders will use the water they need. If the site cannot hold that water, the fire becomes a release into the aquifer. Containment sized for a realistic event should be a condition of approval, of renewal and of any change in equipment. Municipalities should also document testing, response, staff and legal costs from the first day, because recovery depends on that documentation and on putting the right parties on notice early.
About Rigano LLC
Rigano LLC is a law firm based in Melville, New York. Its practice includes education law, municipal law, environmental law, commercial litigation, bankruptcy, and real estate and banking matters. Learn more about the firm's environmental law and municipal law practices.
Municipalities with questions about Novec 1230 systems, battery storage approvals or PFAS contamination can contact Nicholas C. Rigano at nrigano@riganollc.com or (631) 756-5900.
Contact Rigano LLC