R.I.P. | Sage of Springs, Herb Field (Updated Apr 27, 2017)

Apr 19, 2017 – Herbert E[dwards] (Herb) Field, the Sage of Springs, passed to his eternal reward yesterday at 92 years old, according to his pastor, Rev. Nancy Howarth.

A memorial service for Herb Field will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 20 at the Springs Community Presbyterian Church, at the intersection of Old Stone Highway and Springs Fireplace Road.

Herb Field's father and two uncles died tending their traps during the 1938 Hurricane when Herb was just 13. (His obituary, based on information from his son Thomas F. Field, was published in the East Hampton Star on April 27.)

Last year, he received a well-earned temporal award at an end-of-summer meeting of the Springs Community Advisory Council in Ashawagh Hall.

East Hampton Town Councilman Fred Overton presented him with a Proclamation testifying to his contributions to the Springs community. Overton's presentation was on behalf of East Hampton Town by its Supervisor, Larry Cantwell.

At the presentation, the crowd attending the meeting gave Herb a standing ovation for his contributions to his country and his community.

The Proclamation.

The citation, signed August 22, 2016 by Supervisor Cantwell, proclaimed that Herbert Edwards (Herb) Field was born at Franklin Farm on August 3, 1924 to Herbert Stone Field and his wife Abigail Rebecca, née Edwards.

Herb was the eldest of four sons. After the death of his father and uncles, he worked for Ferris Talmage to help support his mother and brothers. Talmage remained a lifetime mentor.

Herb enlisted at 17 in the U.S. Navy in April 1943. He served as a motor mechanic on board destroyer escorts.  He was sent on tours in the Pacific, Europe and the Americas. He was honorably discharged on December 18, 1945.

After his military service he managed Sylvester Prime’s farm on Shelter Island and then in 1949 moved to Morrisville, N.Y., where he purchased and managed two dairy farms covering 316 acres.

After 15 years upstate, he purchased the Baker and Baker dairy farm in Amagansett and lived there until his death.

Herb faithfully attended the Springs Community Presbyterian Church starting in the 1970s and sat consistently in the second row behind the organ donated by Robert Mulford.

For what must have been four decades he arrived an hour before the service every Sunday morning and started the coffee pot brewing, until one day not so long ago he announced he couldn't keep doing this any more.

When I first came to Springs in 1981 as a seasonal visitor, I started singing in the Springs Church choir and was invited, faute de mieux, to join "The Men of Springs," a church-related activity. My wife Alice Tepper Marlin was dubious about this. It sounded macho. Who knew what sinister plans these local deer-hunters, who probably looked askance at seasonal families "from away", might not be up to?

Herb Field with Tina Piette and
me, next to Ashawagh Hall. Photo
by Dr Carter Dodge.

Then we found out that the principal public activity of the Men of Springs was to cook and serve a community chicken dinner with no apparent female support. Her attitude to the group mellowed.

So I was a seasonal participant in the program, but over time the number of men who composed the Men of Springs dwindled, lost to illness or death or retirement to a place where they could get assisted living — or unassisted living — at an affordable price.

In time, the remaining men could not keep up the tradition of the annual chicken dinner. The event was continued, like so much else, through the devotion of the hard-working women of the church.

Herb was, I think, the last of the Men of Springs who were there when I arrived in Springs 36 years ago.

Herb earned the title of Sage of Springs because he knew more about the history of Springs than anyone else alive. He commented as an aside that he remembered when Supervisor Cantwell was "in short pants."

Over the years Herb told me more truly funny stories than I can count. He had a keen understanding of farming, canning, clamming, milling and human nature and he communicated it with his dry Bonacker humor, of which he was acutely aware and proud.

For example, during the period of my Men of Springs membership, I was in the kitchen, and everyone there was highly aware that I was a city guy out of my element in the Springs culture, which for centuries was built on faith, farm, fish and family. I came in for a lot of teasing as the country bumpkins enjoyed showing the city slicker how little he knew about what was important.

At one point they explained to me that how nutritious the food was, and that the delicious ginger gravy they were serving with the chicken had no sugar or flour in it.

I was amazed. How could they do that? They swore on the bible they added no sugar or flour. But I saw a glint in Herb's eye, and I demanded that he tell me, based on my rights as a fully vested seasonal member of the Men of Springs,  what the ingredients were.

Herb with Dr Dodge.
Photo by JT Marlin.

He said: "Well now, we have the juice left over from the chicken and we filter out any skin and the heavy fat. We cook it all in a pan and stir in some green onions and celery, and some garlic, about 4 minutes..."

"And...?"

"We add some pepper, thyme and sage..."

"And... what else?" I demanded, getting a little impatient.

I learned over time to look for the signal that Herb was about to deliver the punch line to his story, which he loved doing. He would become super-serious.

"Then, well now, you know, for every quart of gravy," he said, "we mix in five ginger-snap cookies."

After God created Herb, He threw away the mold.

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MUNI FINANCE | Cantwell and Ravitch (with Postscript)

Larry Cantwell (L) and Dick Ravitch at the East Hampton, NY Library.
This and following photo by JTMarlin.

This year the East Hampton Library initiated a high-quality series of lectures named after the late Tom Twomey, the library's former Chairman.

The lectures are held in the basement of the new addition to  the library and are financed by donations.

Patti Kenner told me she spoke with Twomey the day before he died, and what he wanted to talk about with her was his speaker series.

Yesterday, Larry Cantwell and Dick Ravitch spoke about municipal finance.

• Ravitch is a national expert on the subject, having overseen financial controls on New York City and Detroit and elsewhere. (Stockton, Calif., is another bankruptcy that was discussed.) His expertise may be in demand in coming months and years as the debt chickens come home to roost.
• Cantwell is an expert on local finances. Together, they provided a formidable range of expertise on the subject of municipal government and finance that may well be in demand in the coming months if the Federal Reserve goes ahead with its program to raise interest rates above its zero-bound level. Puerto Rico has already announced that it is drowning in its existing debt and can't pay them.

Ravitch was made Chairman of the Municipal Assistance Corporation when New York City became insolvent in 1974. Mayor Beame had been financing annual deficits by borrowing and the banks suddenly stopped lending. Ravitch formed an independent entity to which NYC sales taxes were pledged, and that entity assumed the debts and paid them off. Meanwhile NYC was under strict controls to prevent a return to financing deficits with debt.

Cantwell, who is Supervisor of the Town of East Hampton and was previously Village Administrator of the Village of East Hampton, agreed with a questioner that East Hampton went through something of the same kind of crisis in 2007-2008. The Town borrowed to pay for current-year operating deficits, as described the New York State Comptroller in a scathing report.

Phyllis Italiano (L) and Bridget Fleming at the meeting.

Someone asked about school consolidation, since there are inequities in the school taxes paid by residents of the different school districts in East Hampton Town. One response is to push for consolidation of school districts. Another is to seek to address the inequities through subsidies for the communities with higher school burdens.

Larry Cantwell said that Assemblyman Fred Thiele, who has a district office in Bridgehampton, was the point man for discussion of this issue.

Bridget Fleming followed up by noting that an attempt to pass a law to help burdened school districts was introduced in Albany and lost by only 39 votes. She is continuing to press for such a law. Phyllis Italiano of East Hampton is a big fan of hers.

Postscript (July 1, 2015)

To the list of municipal insolvencies and control boards since New York City's, I should add Yonkers, Nassau County, the District of Columbia and Jefferson County, Alabama.

The National Governors Association has posted a MuniFactSheet questioning the idea that the number of municipal defaults is growing. It says that between 1970 and 2011 there were only 65 defaults on rated debt, excluding technical defaults.

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PSEG | Long Island Utility 2.0 Plan (Comments)

We signed up to speak at the Hearing in East Hampton that started at 5 pm, but were not able to wait beyond 8 pm. We sent the following comments to the Secretary of the NY State Department of Public Services.

COMMENTS OF DR. JOHN TEPPER MARLIN AND MRS. ALICE TEPPER MARLIN

ON PSEG LONG ISLAND UTILITY 2.0 PLAN, DPS MATTER NUMBER 14-01299

We have reviewed the PSEG Long Island Utility 2.0 Plan as posted July 1, 2014. Our overall comment is that we find nothing in the plan about the following important topics:

• The impact of the energy generation plans on local communities on Long Island,
  
• Cooperation with local officials in the implementation of the plans,
  
• Respect for local environmental and land use provisions.

These omissions are especially serious in light of PSEG's record during the past year in expanding the electricity-transmission capacity of New Jersey and Long Island, NY. It does not seem to have given any weight in this task to local rights, regulations or responsibilities, and the risks to safety that its expansion creates.

The tradition-proud leaderships of some villages in New Jersey and New York are shocked by the way PSEG has recently:

• Ignored long-standing local environmental and planning processes,
• Provided little or no notice to the either local governments or affected individuals, before installing poles
• Installed super-tall poles (70 feet long, says the NY Times), widely viewed as eyesores, that  have been treated with a toxic chemical, Penta or PCP (Pentachlorophenol) an organochlorine compound primarily used for preservation of wooden utility poles. There are no permissible residential uses. The manufacturer says it may be fatal if inhaled or absorbed through skin, harmful if swallowed, and irritating to skin, eye and respiratory tract. It can cause cardiovascular and other effects. PSEG workers who put in the poles are exposed to Penta through inhalation and skin contact. Residents are exposed through contact with ground around the wood, or drinking water contaminated by Penta through leakage into wells. U.S. EPA classifies Penta as a "probable carcinogen".
• Reduced the attractiveness of properties and therefore their values,
• Added to existing 26 kV (kilovolt) lines substantially heavier 69 kV lines above ground, posing new storm hazards,
• Has proscribed local first responders from removing fallen wires, which run in front of the Emergency Services Building in East Hampton. This may halt the ability of local first responders to reach victims in emergencies, with the possibility of long delays in providing emergency services in hurricanes and storms.

Herewith a few notes about three communities from the growing recent record of insults to community planning and regulations - Ridgewood, NJ; Port Washington, NY; and East Hampton, NY.

Ridgewood, NJ (August-November 2013). Ridgewood Mayor Paul Aronsohn complained of PSEG's installing 78 new wooden utility poles, 15 feet higher than standard poles. Residents were opposed to the height of the poles and the new hazards and the project was halted. In July, a tweeter wrote: "If Ridgewood NJ hates the new poles, let them go w/out power next storm.” PSEG retweeted the message to 42,000 followers at @PSEGCares and other accounts. Ridgewood Mayor Aronsohn said the retweets “could be construed as a threat.” (Source: WCBS 880.)

Ridgewood's Mayor went to the NJ Board of Public Utilities (NJ BPU) in Trenton to stop the taller, higher-voltage utility poles. He noted that PSEG did not provide advance notice, was using higher-voltage lines without regard to the increased hazards in an emergency, and the poles would lower property values in a community where the median home price exceeds $700,000.

The bad news in November for Ridgewood was that NJ BPU ruled against Ridgewood. Its president, Robert Hanna, said he had "sympathy" for the citizens and the "aesthetic effect" of the project. But he didn't see the health and safety concerns.  Ridgewood's Mayor reiterated his call for underground lines:

The increasing frequency of destructive storms combined with the increasing demand for electricity suggests that the 'business-as-usual' approach — more poles with higher voltage — must be revisited.

The good news for Ridgewood was that NJ BPU agreed with the Village that PSEG had not given residents or village officials proper advance warning about the pending work:

• Board of Public Utilities President Hanna observed that during Hurricane Sandy and other storms, NJ utilities had already been criticized for failure to update customers about mass outages. 
• BPU noted that PSEG never secured required road permits from the Village of Ridgewood.
• BPU Commissioner Joseph Fiordaliso said:

We’re not talking about rocket science here. You can short-circuit a lot of problems by communicating ... to the municipality and to the individuals who are going to be directly affected.

PSEG spokeswoman Karen Johnson, seemingly chastened, promised to communicate better in a November 2013 email:

This experience has reinforced to us the importance of communications with the communities in which we are building and upgrading facilities. We ... will continue to look at ways to improve the process to better assure that communities understand the rationale for projects and to allay any health and safety concerns in advance.

Port Washington, NY (April 2014).  PSEG installed 200 of the approximately 220 70-foot poles it planned along the five-mile project route to Great Neck. Ten percent of the overhead transmission wire was strung. Then a hearing was held. Residents reacted as follows:

• We want to protect the identity of the town. The town should look good, and not ugly like this.
• I’m petrified of this huge pole more than being without electricity.
• It’s horrible. The issue is do it the right way, and give people the chance to pay... before you start putting it up

David Daly, PSEG-Long Island's president and CEO, told Port Washington that "There is no option to stop the project," and that the lines could be buried later, but the cost of millions more would be passed on to customers, "as long as you want to pay for it." Utilities can "do what they want", said Gerald A. Norlander of New York’s Utility Project, a consumer group. However, he said, the NY State Department of Public Service can place limits on them. As a result of community opposition, Governor Andrew Cuomo's office has asked the Department of Public Service to review the PSEG-Long Island project.

Judi Bosworth, the supervisor of the Town of North Hempstead, which includes the project route, wonders whether Hurricane Sandy recovery funds could be used: "It seems to me that burying the wires is something that could qualify, and we plan to make a strong case for that." Michael Meenan of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said hurricane money could be available if burying the lines would reduce the likelihood of future damage and was cost-efficient. 

East Hampton, April 2014.   In January, PSEG began installing 267 of the 70-foot-long utility poles to cover six-and-a-half miles of transmission from East Hampton Village to Amagansett. The project halted in April when East Hampton Town issued a stop-work order at the Amagansett substation. PSEG failed to obtain site-plan approval or a building permit. PSEG filed a temporary restraining order, which was denied. It also filed for a permanent injunction against the town - decision still awaited at the State Supreme Court’s Appellate Division in Brooklyn. 

East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said East Hampton would not borrow money to bury the lines, but wanted PSEG to give East Hampton the same deal as the Town of Southampton, where PSEG paid for burying 23/33 kV transmission lines by adding a charge to customers’ bills. Cantwell said:

We wanted to be involved in the energy-alternative process, and not be handed a fait accompli. ... There could have been a better job of presenting this to the public for discussion, and perhaps alternatives could have worked out in advance of this happening.

Some Southampton customers have not paid the extra charge and PSEG has sued Southampton Town for the $200,000 in allegedly unpaid charges. 

The Utility 2.0 Plan

East Hampton residents, such as Debra Foster, have organized a "Save East Hampton" group around the “Bury the Lines” issue. We attended the hearing because of her work bringing it to our attention. Her groups entirely right that the Utility 2.0 Plan does not incorporate the promise made by PSEG after the BPU reprimand in 2013. It should do so and PSEG should respect the promise.

This is not our first rodeo. We were at the 820 mW Shoreham plant in the 1980s, protesting the folly of nuclear power in an area where there was no safe escape route in the event of an emergency and no safe exit for nuclear waste. The venerable Long Island Lighting Company (LILCO) was founded in 1911 by Ellis Phillips, an engineer. LILCO spent 20 years building the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant, but never gave enough credence to community opposition. Ultimately, public pressure brought Shoreham and LILCO to an end in 1989, under Governor Mario Cuomo. The $5.5 billion plant was eventually dismantled before it ever operated.

So it should not be an impossible dream for East Hampton residents to take down all of the 267 poles and bury the lines. The problem is that LIPA and the Governor make environmental commitments to customers that PSEG then mocks. East Hampton has been celebrated in the Governor's Comprehensive Energy Vision as a leader in Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency. The Town should be treated like a leader.

PSEG's Utility 2.0 plan seems to be moving PSEG toward building seven new fossil-fuel power plants on Eastern Long Island, is inconsistent with decisions by local residents. East Hampton has pledged itself to be 100 percent independent of fossil fuel by 2020, and 100 percent dependent instead on renewable energy - solar, wind, geothermal, batteries. Utility 2.0 should be redesigned to be consistent with East Hampton Town's own plans. 

We urge FEMA to finance the removal of the poles and burial of the transmission wires, and we ask PSEG and the Town and other levels of government to participate in a joint effort to increase public safety and save East Hampton by burying electric, telephone and cable wires.

PSEG | Toxic Pole March, N.J.-L.I., NY

PSEG advances on its communities like a wild rhino.

The PSEG PR fiasco in East Hampton raises the question: "Was this PSEG's first rodeo?" No, PSEG has been battling complaints about the poles in New Jersey a year ago and in the middle of Long Island at the beginning of 2014.

Based on its record of the past year, PSEG seems to take the view that its job is solely to expand the electricity-transmission capacity of New Jersey and Long Island, NY and this job gives it the right to override and transcend all existing local rights, regulations or responsibilities.

The tradition-proud leaderships of some villages in New Jersey and New York are stunned by what appears a charging rhinoceros through their grassland. PSEG has:

• Ignored long-standing local environmental and planning processes,
• Provided little or no notice of its arrival to install poles, either to the local governments or to affected individuals,
• Installed super-tall poles (70 feet long, says the NY Times), widely viewed as eyesores,
• Used poles treated with Penta (a "probable carcinogen", according to the US EPA).
• Reduced the attractiveness of properties and therefore their values,
• Added to existing 26 kV lines heavier 69 kV lines with new hazards,
• Perhaps worst of all, proscribed local first-responders from touching the wires, thus impeding their ability to reach victims in emergencies and risking week-long delays in providing emergency services in hurricanes and storms.

Herewith a few pieces from the growing record of community insults.

Ridgewood, NJ - August 2013

Ridgewood Mayor Paul Aronsohn complained of PSEG's installing of 78 new wooden utility poles, 15 feet higher than standard poles, designed to withstand 130-mph winds. The project was halted as complaints mounted. Residents said:

The town needs to do more to rectify this situation. These poles need to be taken out. An eyesore to most, but they are more than just that, they are monstrosities. ... They’re twice the size of our houses. They could fall down, number one; number two, they’re not zoned to be that high, they should only be 35 feet.

In July, a tweeter wrote: "If Ridgewood NJ hates the new poles, let them go w/out power next storm.” PSEG retweeted the message to @PSEGCares and two other accounts with a total of 42,000 followers. Ridgewood Mayor Aronsohn said the retweets  “could be construed as a threat.” (Source: WCBS 880.)

Trenton, NJ - November 2013

PSEG was given a green light by the NJ Board of Public Utilities in Trenton to install the taller, higher-voltage utility poles. The Village of Ridgewood, NJ, had asked for the project to be halted because PSEG did not provide advance notice, was using higher-voltage lines without regard to the increased hazards in an emergency, and would lower property values in a community where the median home price exceeds $700,000).

BPU president Robert Hanna said he had "sympathy" for the citizens and the "aesthetic effect" of the project, but

 I don’t see the health and safety concerns. 

PSEG spokeswoman Karen Johnson said the cost of burying the lines would be too high.

In the wake of the decision, Ridgewood's Mayor said he was disappointed, and reiterated his call for underground lines: "The increasing frequency of destructive storms combined with the increasing demand for electricity suggests that the 'business-as-usual' approach — more poles with higher voltage — must be revisited."

BPU reprimanded PSEG for not giving residents or village officials advance warning about the pending work, and PSEG said they would reform:

• BPU President Hanna observed that during Hurricane Sandy and other storms, NJ utilities had already been criticized for failure to update customers about mass outages. PSEG never secured required road permits from the Village of Ridgewood.

• BPU Commissioner Joseph Fiordaliso said:  "We’re not talking about rocket science here. You can short-circuit a lot of problems by communicating ... to the municipality and to the individuals who are going to be directly affected."

• PSEG spokeswoman Johnson promised to communicate better in a November 2013 email: "This experience has reinforced to us the importance of communications with the communities in which we are building and upgrading facilities. We ... will continue to look at ways to improve the process to better assure that communities understand the rationale for projects and to allay any health and safety concerns in advance."

Port Washington, NY - April 2014

In Port Washington, NY, the new poles rise high above the one-storey businesses along Port Washington Boulevard. The poles are 70 feet high, taller than the old utility poles that averaged 45 feet. PSEG has so far installed 200 of the approximately 220 poles it plans along the five-mile project route from Port Washington to Great Neck. Ten percent of the overhead transmission wire has been strung. Residents said:

• We want to protect the identity of the town. The town should look good, and not ugly like this.
• I’m petrified of this huge pole more than being without electricity.
• It’s horrible. The issue is do it the right way, and give people the chance to pay... before you start putting it up.

Utilities can use public rights of way and may resort to eminent domain. Gerald A. Norlander of New York’s Utility Project, a consumer advocacy group said: “They can take a site and do what they want."  The NY state Department of Public Service can place limits, he said. As a result of community opposition, the Governor’s office has asked DPS to review the project.

The taller poles are stronger and more resilient in storms than the older poles, said David M. Daly, PSEG-Long Island's President and CEO, to a restless town meeting in Port Washington. The lines, he said, could be buried later, but that could cost millions more, and costs would be passed on to customers. He said: "There is no option to stop the project. ... You can do anything you want, as long as you want to pay for it."

But Judi Bosworth, the supervisor of the Town of North Hempstead, which includes the project route, wonders whether Hurricane Sandy recovery funds could be used:

It seems to me that burying the wires is something that could qualify, and we plan to make a strong case for that.

A spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Michael Meenan, said hurricane money could be available if burying the lines would reduce the likelihood of future damage and was cost-efficient. (Source: Kia Gregory, "Utility Poles Generate Heat From Long Island Residents", NY Times, April 22, 2014.)

East Hampton, April 2014

In January, PSEG began installing a 23/33 kV transmission line and 267 of the 70-foot long and larger-diameter utility poles to cover six-and-a-half miles of transmission from East Hampton Village to Amagansett. The project was described as an  "upgrade" to provide "reliable" and "redundant" electricity under storm conditions. 

The project stopped in April when East Hampton Town issued a stop-work order at the Amagansett substation, for which PSEG failed to obtain site-plan approval or a building permit. PSEG filed a temporary restraining order, which was denied. It also filed for a permanent injunction against the town, about which a decision is awaited at the State Supreme Court’s Appellate Division in Brooklyn. East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said:

We wanted to be involved in the energy-alternative process, and not be handed a fait accompli. ... There could have been a better job of presenting this to the public for discussion, and perhaps alternatives could have worked out in advance of this happening.

Mr. Cantwell said East Hampton would not borrow money to bury the lines. He wanted PSEG to give East Hampton the same deal as the Town of Southampton, where PSEG paid for burying the lines by adding a charge to customers’ bills. Some customers have not paid the extra charge and PSEG has sued Southampton Town for the $200,000 it claimed the Town owed. (Source: Kia Gregory, "Utility Poles Generate Heat From Long Island Residents", NY Times, April 22, 2014.)

This story continues here.

PSEG | East Hampton Atrocity, Then Outrage

Bottom line.

PSEG Long Island called a public hearing yesterday evening on the Utility 2.0 Long Range Plan. It was an opportunity lost.

Local residents such as eco-warrior Debra Foster organized Save East Hampton around the “Bury the Lines” issue, and used the hearing as their platform, complete with a couple of dozen supporters wearing orange tee shirts emblazoned with their slogan.

Respect Not Returned

Even though the "Bury the Lines" group hijacked the hearing, they were not disruptive. They were quiet and respectful for an hour, giving the representatives of the PSEG and the Governor and NYS Public Service Commission (which has only advisory powers over Long Island) a chance to repair relations with the East Hampton community.

No such luck. The respect was not returned. The PSEG spokesman left, although reportedly there were two other PSEG employees hiding in the back. It was an opportunity lost, except for the possibility of a published record with excellent speakers on the Utility 2.0 Plan, such as East Hampton Supervisor Larry Cantwell, Assemblyman Fred Thiele, Frank Dalene of the Energy Sustainability Committee (ESC), and Gordian Raacke of Renewable Energy Long Island.

The meeting was structured in an unforgivably cynical way, taking up the whole first hour with a slide show. The big issues were buried with minutiae in which no one had any interest. (The best place to hide a book is in a library.) The slide show could have been announced as available on-line, and the PSEG spokesman given the same four-minute limit that community representatives  were required to keep to. Sure enough, the hall was emptied out by 8 pm, leaving no audience for many of the 50 people who signed up to speak; some are planning and environmental experts with real contributions to make.

I know two well-informed people who were at the meeting before it opened at 5 pm, to sign up to speak, but couldn't. They had to leave for dinner by 8 pm, before they were called.

Why East Hampton Residents Are Furious

PSEG is the latest catastrophe in a string of disasters, beginning with the one that brought down the venerable Long Island Lighting Company (LILCO), founded in 1911 by Ellis Phillips, an engineer. LILCO built the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant. I was at Shoreham with my wife Alice in the 1970s, protesting the folly of nuclear power in an area where there was no escape in the event of an emergency.

Public pressure brought to an end to Shoreham in 1989, under Governor Mario Cuomo. The plant was dismantled and LILCO ended. So anyone who thinks that taking down some 70-foot poles is an impossible dream should remember Shoreham. A lot of people involved in the anti-Shoreham campaign are still around - Steve Latham, for example, of Twomey, Latham et al.

The assets of LILCO were purchased by the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA), a public authority, which issued debt to buy them. LIPA still owns the utility assets on Long Island along with the debt. But the pesky problem of actually providing electricity to Long Island residents has been contracted out, first to KeySpan, which became the National Grid, and now to PSEG, a Newark-based electric utility. If Long Island customers got an electric bill from Scam, Inc., they would probably pay it.

Standing room only. Big crowd of more than 200 people unhappy with PSEG and the Governor. Photo by JT Marlin.

The problem is that good-cop LIPA makes environmental commitments to customers that bad-cop PSEG then makes fun of. PSEG's customers in the Town of East Hampton finally got a hearing and were eager to express their distress at PSEG's trampling on their right to due process by installing high-voltage transmission lines on new 70-foot (says the NY Times - described in some places as 65-foot or even 60-foot) poles.

More than 200 people attended, says Newsday, a big crowd - elderly people had to stand for more than an hour until the crowd thinned out, even though Village officials brought out many more chairs.

I don't think anyone went out of that meeting with the feeling that Albany cared yet what they think and that the treatment of the community would immediately change. But those who might have wondered whether this might be a lot of fuss over nothing, like maybe me, could only have come out of the meeting with a sense of betrayal by PSEG and, yes, the officials who are supposed to be keeping PSEG in check. These are the times and places that create a local Henry ("Braveheart") Wallace or James ("Black") Douglas, leaders of Scotland's successful fight against a then-imperial London.

This despite East Hampton's being celebrated in the Governor's Comprehensive Energy Vision as a leader in Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency.

East Hamptonites have three major gripes with PSEG's handling of environmental issues:

• PSEG introduced itself to East Hampton with what one organization's spokesman called "an atrocity", installing nearly 300 ugly and dangerous poles in defiance of local laws and traditions and feelings. 



Testifying before the Director, DPS-LI, Julia Bovey. The
PSEG spokesman took to the end of the first hour, then left
before the excellent string of four-minute public comments.

• PSEG's "Utility 2.0" plan, which was the reason PSEG called the meeting, was  slammed by Gordian Raacke of Renewable Energy - Long Island (RELI) as "Not 2.0, more like 1.1". It lacks detail. The information that it does disclose, like building seven new fossil-fuel power plants on Eastern Long Island, defies decisions by local residents. East Hampton has pledged itself to be 100 percent independent of fossil fuel by 2020, and 100 percent dependent instead on renewable energy - solar, wind, geothermal, batteries.
• The public hearing yesterday was an outrage. PSEG's representative took up an hour of time with a recitation of mostly irrelevant facts, then fled the scene instead of showing a scintilla of respect by listening to the well-prepared four-minutes-or-less statements of 40+ members of the public.  Next time, he or his successor should be given no more time to speak than members of the public.

The Atrocity

PSEG was atrocious in handling its first move, which was adding to transmission lines by putting up 267 toxic poles, 70 feet long, with (to come) extra-high-voltage lines that no existing first responders know how to deal with or are permitted to deal with. The negative impacts on the East Hampton community are multiple, as described by the numerous comments that started at 6 pm:

• The poles are hideous. They are like black teeth in the Town Lane smile.
• Due process was not followed. As Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said, LIPA administered it own 30-day review process without regard for any environmental regulations. There was no proper environmental impact study of the 6.5 mile transmission line. Quoth Mr. Cantwell, "Never again." He means it. 
• Kathleen Cunningham of the usually staid East Hampton Village Preservation Society was up in arms over the bypassing of local planning procedures.
• The transmission lines will carry higher voltage than anyone is used to.  
• If (when) the trees fall and bring down the poles, the high voltage will bring traffic to a standstill. Will PSEG personnel be ready with trucks to remove the poles and high-voltage wires, since no one else can?
• The new poles create huge emergency-service problems. The transmission lines go right past the East Hampton Village Emergency Services Building where the meeting was held. In another storm, the transmission lines could block vehicles from leaving the building. How is PSEG going to get to fix the lines? This is a crisis waiting to happen, with anyone in East Hampton being a possible victim of the lack of services.
• Some of the 60-foot poles are 20 feet from homes. What will happen to the homes when the high-voltage wires fall on private homes?



Gordian Raacke, RELI.

• The poles are treated with a toxic chemical, Penta, that is banned in the USA for any use but utility poles and railroad ties, and is about to be banned by treaty in 211 countries as a probable carcinogen.
• The reason Penta is still accepted for utility poles, according to one comment at the meeting, is that regulators assumed that none of these poles would be installed close to residences with children.

The Problem with Penta-Treated Poles

The point about toxic poles was new to me. The PSEG poles have been treated with Pentachlorophenol - Penta or PCP, introduced in the 1930s. Use of Penta has declined because its advantages are also big negatives - it lasts for a long time in the environment and is effective because it poisons all kinds of creatures. Its only permitted U.S. use is to preserve utility poles and railroad ties. Utility poles last 35 years with Penta treatment, five times as long as when they are untreated. But in the meantime they release poison into the ground and the air.

PSEG workers who put in the poles are exposed to Penta through inhalation and skin contact. Residents are exposed through contact with ground around the treated wood, or drinking water contaminated by Penta through leakage into well-water. Short-term exposure to large amounts of Penta can cause harmful effects on the liver, kidneys, blood, lungs, nervous system, immune system, and gastrointestinal tract. Side effects include elevated temperature, profuse sweating, uncoordinated movement, muscle twitching, and coma. Contact with Penta in the form of vapor can irritate the skin, eyes, and mouth. Long-term exposure to Penta is associated with carcinogenic, renal, and neurological effects and the U.S. EPA classifies Penta as a probable human carcinogen. Penta has been detected in surface waters and sediments, rainwater, drinking water, aquatic organisms, soil, and food, as well as in human milk, adipose tissue, and urine.

Utility 2.0

Gordian Raacke of RELI said it all. Utility 2.0 is really Utility 1.1 because it doesn't take us very far. It's a PSEG construct - and PSEG's CEO has expressed his impatience with the vision of the future that East Hampton has adopted. East Hampton plans for a 2020 future of 100 percent renewable energy, including solar panels accompanied by a system of distributed energy generation. PSEG is focusing on taking control of more of the consumer's energy equipment.

Control over the system should really rest with the owner of the system, which is LIPA and ultimately the State of New York. The State's plan is the Comprehensive Energy Vision, in which East Hampton is a model for the rest of the state.

It is clear that changes in how utilities are organized are ahead. They have been in the making for decades. But neither PSEG nor New York State has articulated exactly what they have in mind.

The Outrage

Now, at the tail end of a series of hearings that Governor Cuomo might have thought would put public unhappiness to rest, the handling of the hearing angered people, like me, who thought of themselves as moderates before the show. 

The first hour was wasted on general information about PSEG that was mostly unrelated to the issue they were there to comment on - which was:

• How to take all the poles down as quickly as possible and bury the wires.
• How to make sure that no state agency ever, ever again rides rough-shod over the community the way that PSEG just did.

Election year.

Jeremy Samuelson, Executive Director of the 40-year-old Concerned Citizens of Montauk, who used the word "atrocity" to describe the PSEG move, said that the main message he brought from Montauk is that PSEG needs to come up with $20-$30 million to take down all the transmission-line poles and bury them. If PSEG doesn't put up the money it will have to come from somewhere else.

It reminds me of the NYS Urban Development Corporation's eminent domain authority. It was used for an economic-development objective, and stirred up cries of: "Never again."

Julia Bovey, Director of the Department of Public Service-Long Island in Albany, is charged with making recommendations to Governor Cuomo. Her first recommendation should be to take out all 267 of the 60-foot poles and bury the transmission wires. Until that happens, expect unhappiness and negative feedback from East Hampton.