Cutchogue landfill solar facility still under discussion

The Southold Town planning board met to discuss the proposed solar facility over the former Cutchogue landfill at a public hearing on Monday, March 10. The hearing was kept open for comment until the next meeting, which is scheduled for Monday, April 7, at 5 p.m. to address concerns raised at this week’s session. 

The landfill is located at 6155 Cox Lane, Cutchogue, which is within the town’s light industrial zoning district. The facility was used for the disposal of municipal solid waste, refuse, debris and scavenger waste until 1993, when it was closed and capped. It sits adjacent to the town’s current composting facility, waste transfer and recycling station. The solar array would be built atop the capped landfill.

The inverters and transformers for the project, the only components that will produce noise, are located roughly 250 and 300 feet from the fence line. The proposed equipment is approximately 500 feet away from the closest listed residential location and around 850 feet from the First Baptist Church, so the project should not cause any noticeable noise to residents. 

Residents expressed concern over the choice of the landfill site during the hearing. Barbara Taylor, who lives near the landfill site in Cutchogue, questioned the choice of building the solar facility on the site. She also worried about the dangers of having the equipment so close. 

“We’ve lived with it for several years — now we’re talking about solar panels. Southold Town is quite big. You mean to tell me they can’t find anywhere else to put these solar panels except for in our backyard?” said Ms. Taylor. “I don’t think so. And furthermore, I’m concerned about what hazards it would cause [from] the two inverters and the two transformers. I’m also concerned about penetrating the cap.”

Summit Ridge Energy representative Jeremy Karpf said that his company and their partners frequently build arrays on capped landfills specifically because they are vacant land that cannot be put to other uses. 

“The choice to put it on the landfill is because it is a capped landfill, which is a brown field and cannot be further developed,” Mr. Karpf said. “So we look at it as a unique and beneficial secondary use for otherwise vacant land that cannot be developed.”

When it comes to the inverters or transformers, both would be located on a concrete pad, and would have all required mitigations to ensure that there was no discharge,” he added. “[As to] the fact that the project would be located on top of concrete ballast, Summit Ridge and our partners have extensive experience developing on top of landfills … We can say that there would be no penetration of the cap.”

Because of the relative proximity of homes, Mr. Karpf was also asked to describe the level of noise the solar farm was expected to produce. He explained that the noise producing elements would be the inverters and transformers which, based on the submitted plans, would be located between 250 and 300 feet from the fence line with the closest residential structure about 500 feet away. 

“So no, there would be no noise to any neighbor,” Mr. Karpf said.

According to Mr. Karpf, there were no wetlands identified on the site and no tree clearing would be required. Additionally, he noted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined that the project was unlikely to harm the northern Long eared bat and made a determination of no effect on the piping plover or Rufa red knot. 

Alex O’Meara, a member of the Friends of Oregon Road group, questioned how the solar facility would store energy and posited that it might be a back door to a battery energy storage system facility, also known as BESS facilities. 

“Our concern is that it’s a Trojan horse. What I mean by this is that the developer’s original bid for this proposal included a BESS, but the BESS was later removed from the plants,” Ms. O’Meara said. “So the question is, where will the solar energy be stored? Do we have assurance that the energy will be fed directly into the grid?”

Mr. Karpf said there was a battery storage element included in the original proposal to take advantage of New York State energy incentive programs, but it was removed after discussions with the town without intent to put it back. The energy will go directly into the electrical grid instead.

Steve Amiaga asked if the panels’ generation is reduced from bird droppings, snow or other obstructions. Mr. Karpf said that a maintenance plan is in place, but that snow usually falls away as the temperature warms.

Nick Krupski, Southold Town’s solid waste coordinator, asked for the planning board to provide more data on the cap. 

“Ultimately, generation of clean energy is a good thing,” Mr. Krupski said. “My main concern as the site manager [of the landfill] is preserving that cap, so that’s something we should dig into the data on.” 

The cap was a frequent concern. Kevin O’Meara, another member of Friends of Oregon Road, inquired about who is responsible if the cap is damaged and who would pay for the removal of the panels if they are damaged. A question was also raised about frostlines. The planning board will solicit answers and address them during the next session April 7 at 5 p.m.