A proposed 250-megawatt lithium-ion battery facility at the former John A. Coleman Catholic High School campus is raising concerns from area residents.
The public turned out en masse for the Wednesday, June 18 meeting of the Ulster Town Board, raising among other things, potential issues with safety for a project that is close to nearby residences. Environmental concerns and a lack of clear benefit for the local community was also cited by various speakers, including Tim Kelly, a former — and if his reelection plans are successful, future — Hurley Town Board councilman.
“This development is 22 feet from a residence,” Kelly said. “It’s adjacent to an environmental justice area. It’s also adjacent to both confirmed and potential wetlands. And it’s also in the drainage basin of the Esopus Creek.”
Kelly called the location of the proposed facility “ill-conceived.”
“You risk ruining the area and turning it into an evacuation zone for generations to come just in the pursuit of a short-term solution to a problem here in Ulster, which is realistically this board’s ego getting in the way when everything’s going up, including taxes,” Kelly said.
Kelly cited communities like Gilman, Colorado and Centralia, Pennsylvania, where residents were given assurances — in the former a zinc mine, the latter a coal-seam fire in an abandoned mine that’s been burning since 1962 — only to have to leave for their own safety.
“There are entire towns that had to use federal funds to be evacuated because of environmental disasters,” Kelly said. “I visited all these places. I don’t want to be bringing future generations here to visit the ‘old Hurley evacuation zone.’”
The proposal was brought to the town last month by Terra-Gen, a San Diego-based renewable energy power producer. The draft plan includes a substation, three water storage tanks, one 30,000 gallons with a fire command center, one 10,000 gallons, and one 5,000-gallon underground tank. 12 of the property’s 15 acres would hold around 300 14-foot-high lithium-ion battery containers.
The location of the property is also raising concerns from nearby communities, like the City of Kingston and Town of Hurley. Hurley Town Supervisor Michael Boms said he’d discussed the project with a local consultant to Terra-Gen and was unable to get answers to critical questions, like whether local residents would directly benefit from lower electricity rates.
Boms, who currently teaches science at Marist University and SUNY Ulster, is also an educator with 50 years of experience.
“I have a deep understanding of the potential hazards associated with such facilities,” he said, adding that a “thermal runaway” fire in a lithium ion battery cannot be adequately contained or stopped.
“The only way to handle this type of fire is to allow it to burn out completely,” Boms said, adding that thermal runaway generates flammable gases like hydrogen and ethylene, which can ignite at high temperatures and lead to rapidly spreading fires or explosions, as well as emitting toxic gases.
Tara Chando, a resident of nearby Country Village, said she was concerned about how the community would handle a sudden evacuation.
“Where am I supposed to go when I’m at work?” Chando said. “Where am I going to go with my animals? There’s no evacuation plan…I just feel like it’s a disgrace to our community. I wish you guys would think about the people in our area.”
Michael Russell, who also lives nearby, shared similar concerns.
“This location is incredibly improper for this magnitude of a project,” Russell said. “This project should be in a fully zoned industrial zone, not next to residential areas, not next to town residents, town neighbors, the elderly children. There’s elementary schools.”
Monica Ayres recalled the distant past when the area was set ablaze by British troops during the Revolutionary War.
“The town around Hurley Avenue burned in 1777,” she said. “I don’t think you want it as your legacy to burn it again.”
Ulster Town Supervisor James E. Quigley, III said he understood the opposition to the proposal, but added that it would be reviewed with great consideration. Quigley said doing otherwise would open the town up to potential legal action, recalling a potential redevelopment of a nearby property at 454 Hurley Avenue, on which Mohammad Waheed proposed Moe’s Motor Cars on the site of the former Empire Mart and Deli, which burned to the ground in 2013.
Despite his surprise at vehement community opposition, Waheed’s application was denied by the town board in 2022, and he successfully sued the town the following year.
“The developer sued, we lost in court, and it cost us $50,000,” Quigley said, adding that a similar judgment could be significantly worse this time around.
“This is not a small time Brooklyn developer on this project and I don’t think this town board is going to put town of Ulster taxpayers at risk,” Quigley said. “If we don’t do this properly and we get sued, this is millions of dollars to the Town of Ulster in losses. We’re not going to allow that. This study will go forward in the appropriate sequence with the appropriate levels of studies addressing the questions that you raised.”
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