Riverhead has been awarded a $470,000 grant from the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation toward the cost of building a wind turbine at the sewer district plant on River Avenue.
The grant is part of the state’s Green Innovation Grant Program, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-funded initiative to provide seed money for projects that “spur green innovation, build green capacity, and facilitate technology transfer,” according to the state agency.
Riverhead was one of 40 Green Innovation Grant recipients statewide. The awards were announced yesterday.
The award amount was the maximum available, according to Riverhead sewer district superintendent Michael Reichel.
The turbine project is part of a multimillion dollar upgrade of the town’s aging sewage treatment facilities, Reichel said.
The turbine would supply an estimated 41 percent of the energy needs of the plant and will reduce CO2 emissions by approximately 18,000 tons over a 25-year period, according to the Environmental Facilities Corporation. “By producing renewable energy and reducing energy costs, the town will be able to apply costs savings towards other treatment plant upgrades necessary to protect the Peconic Estuary,” the EFC said in a statement about the grant award.
The Riverhead Town Board has not yet committed to building the 270-foot-tall wind turbine, which has drawn opposition from nearby residents worried about noise that might be generated by its operation.
Since a Feburary public hearing on the proposal, Supervisor Sean Walter has visited two other wind turbine sites to see similar turbines in operation and listen to noise generated by them. He has said as a result of his field trips — one to New Jersey and one upstate — he felt comfortable that a wind turbine at the sewer plant would not be a bad neighbor for area residents. The supervisor said if the town moves forward with the turbine it will have the New York Power Authority oversee the project and finance the construction costs, estimated at $1.8 million. See prior story.
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