A review board of Suffolk County’s health services department has denied a request by the developers of a proposed battery storage plant in Holtsville to house tanks with tens of thousands of gallons of petroleum distillate oil and other “toxic/hazardous” liquids on the 6-acre site, noting the request was 720% above allowable storage limits.

The three-member review panel noted in its denial that groundwater in a deep-recharge well is a third of a mile away and only 50 feet below the surface.

The denial prompted a Dec. 8 lawsuit by developer Savion Energy, which has begun preliminary clearing work at the site at the Long Island Expressway South Service Road at Morris Avenue in Holtsville. 

Savion in its lawsuit argued that Suffolk used an incorrect law to justify its denial of the variance, and that even if the law sited was correct, Suffolk’s review board failed to consider that the project is under the “lightened public utility review” mandated under New York State law for such projects.

Savion in a letter to the court noted the project is being built to “store energy generated by projects on [LIPA’s] electrical grid, including varying amounts of renewable energy produced by Sunrise [Wind] in fulfillment of the State Climate Change Act’s statutory renewable energy mandates.”

In a November letter to the developer, which is owned by fossil-fuel giant Shell, Suffolk denied Savion’s request to allow for storage containers for 18,249 gallons of “toxic and/or hazardous material,” noting the request called for storing 17,999 gallons of toxic or hazardous materials in excess of the 250-gallon limit.

Among other storage tanks included in the application was one for 99 gallons of battery electrolyte containing lead, arsenic and sulfuric acid, all also classified as toxic/hazardous, according to the Suffolk denial letter. Another tank would contain 32,500 of Envirotemp FR3 soybean oil, or ester fluid, for “inventory purposes only.”

But the chief concern was the tank that included 18,150 gallons of petroleum distillate-based transformer oil that the county noted is classified as toxic and/or hazardous material.

Kelly Cooper, a spokeswoman for Savion, declined to comment on the lawsuit, but noted that the company’s Holtsville Energy Storage project and another, East Setauket Energy Storage, “are both still in active development phases and remain active” in the New York Independent System Operator queue for projects seeking interconnection.

A third Savion project known as Setauket Energy Storage is no longer in the active NYISO queue, but Cooper noted it is “not uncommon for projects to move in and out of the interconnection queue during development — for a variety of reasons.” The Setauket project would require a zoning change on part of a parcel, which Brookhaven Town has signaled may render projects more challenging to approve. 

A spokeswoman for Suffolk’s health services department didn’t immediately provide a comment. 

Jeff Szabo, chief executive of the Suffolk County Water Authority, in an interview Thursday, said, “We most certainly had a lot of questions about these types of facilities,” leading the agency to meet with consultants, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office and others.

Mike Martino, a spokesman for Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine, declined to comment on pending litigation. 

Suffolk in its decision noted that approval of the waiver requested by Savion in Holtsville would “set a precedent for approval of similar restricted materials storage tanks at other facilities and similar projects in the groundwater management zone 1, resulting in increased potential for contamination in the deep recharge area.” Savion argued that other such tanks are already in place in the area for use by Sunrise Wind and LIPA.

Suffolk’s decision said the project could come into compliance if it were to use natural ester oil for its transformers instead of the petroleum distillate. It acknowledged that such a change “would result in project delays” and a 50% cost increase.

Brookhaven Town, which has already provided a clearing permit for the Holtsville property, in January 2023 issued a “negative declaration” for the project, finding it would result in no environmental impacts under a state siting law known as the State Environmental Quality Review Act. Brookhaven also created a special zoning district for battery storage plants, and is one of the few towns across Long Island that does not have a battery plant moratorium. (East Hampton is home to two battery storage plants, one of which experienced a fire in 2023.) 

In materials presented by Savion during hearings, the company said a three-year delay of engineering, procurement and construction phases resulting from Suffolk’s denial and redesign “would result in termination of the project’s” prior interconnection agreement with LIPA and the NYISO, which manages the state grid.

Savion said the project’s containment design could hold the entire contents of the transformer “plus a 100-year rainfall event” and noted it’s “consistent with other transformers in the area.”

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.