A developer looking to build a waste-to-energy facility at the Calverton Enterprise Park is asking the Riverhead Zoning Board of Appeals to overrule the town building department’s determination that the zoning code prohibits the use.
The facility, proposed by Melville-based CEA Energy, would process organic wastes and generate renewable natural gas and compostable soil amenders, according to documents filed with the ZBA.
But the town building department has twice ruled that the proposed use is not allowed under the zoning code — most recently in a March 4 letter from Building and Planning Administrator Jefferson Murphree, who cited a February 2019 determination by then-Chief Building Inspector Brad Hammond.
In his Feb. 25, 2019 letter, Hammond wrote that, while the proposed use is neither specifically permitted nor specifically prohibited by the zoning at the site, the proposed “use is akin to specifically prohibited uses: ‘Dumps’ and ‘Garbage disposal dumps, landfills, incinerators, or transfer stations.’ Industrial uses are those involved with manufacturing/creation of a product, typically within a building, ie a factory. The proposed use is deemed to be a salvage/recycling use; breaking down used and waste products into raw materials.”
The application to the ZBA was made by Taliesin East, a West Babylon company that has owned the 8.3-acre vacant parcel at 200 Scott Avenue in the enterprise park since April 2007. Taliesin East has signed a letter of intent with CEA Energy that contemplates the sale of the site to CEA for $600,000 per acre.
The 200 Scott Avenue site is located in the Planned Industrial Park Zoning Use District, adopted in 1999 for the 490-acre “industrial core” of the former Grumman manufacturing site.
Engineer Richard Galli of Galli Engineering, a CEA joint venture partner, argues in a Feb. 18 letter that the proposed organics recycling facility, an anaerobic digester, falls within the industrial uses allowed by the zoning, because it is, in essence, manufacturing. It “includes the processing of pre- and post-consumer recyclable material and manufactures two products: renewable natural gas (RNG) and compostable soil amenders to be used within the agricultural industry,” Galli wrote.
Galli also notes that the adjoining Planned Development Zoning Use District, adopted in 2013 to guide redevelopment of the vacant acreage surrounding EPCAL’s industrial core, allows renewable and alternative energy resource uses.
CEA’s anaerobic digester facility would be enclosed within roofed structures and would emit minimal or no odors, Galli wrote. No waste will be shipped out, except a small percentage of platics and cardboard that is intermingled with the source-separated organics brought into the facility, he said.
Raw materials would be brought to the facility from food purveyors such as supermarkets, restaurants and other commercial collection entities that collect source-separated organics and are required by law to recycle food scraps, Galli wrote. All raw materials will be shipped to the facility by rail or trucks in sealed containers. The site is located near, though not adjoining, the rail spur in the enterprise park.
Renewable natural gas is considered to be “pipeline-quality,” according to the U.S. Department of Energy. RNG produced at the Calverton facility would be sold through existing infrastructure such as pipelines and heavy-duty vehicles, Galli wrote.
CEA Energy first approached the town board in 2019 about building the proposed facility in partnership with the town on a 12.7-acre, town-owned site on Youngs Avenue in Calverton. After that conversation, Prusinowski, a consultant with United Metro Energy, revealed that CEA was in talks with United Metro Energy to build the facility at United’s site at EPCAL.
The Zoning Board of Appeals will consider the Taliesin appeal at a hearing tonight at 7 p.m at Riverhead Town Hall. The meeting can also be accessed by Zoom at this link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85835635498?pwd=M2pxZW1sRHRzSTdySEN1OGllODRzUT09
or by calling l 1-646-558-8656. (Meeting ID: 858 3563 5498 – Passcode: 207067)
-With Denise Civiletti
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