Anaerobic digester

Angry residents objected to allowing large battery energy storage systems in Riverhead Town during a public hearing last week, arguing that the safety of the systems and potential locations of the new use should be more carefully studied in the town’s comprehensive planning process.

Anaerobic digestion facilities use biological processes in an oxygen-free environment to convert source-separated food wastes to biogas and compost products, which can be sold. The town is considering allowing the use in the Planned Industrial Park zoning district located in the Calverton Enterprise Park.

A company looking to build a commercial food waste-to-energy facility at the Enterprise Park at Calverton has asked the Riverhead Town Board to change the zoning code to specifically allow the facility there — a little more than a week after the board held a public hearing to consider a ban on the facilities entirely.

The fate of a proposal to site a food waste-to-energy facility at the Calverton Enterprise Park — and whether or not the Town of Riverhead will allow such facilities anywhere within its borders — remains uncertain.

Town officials are considering entering into a joint venture with a Melville company to build a food waste processing plant on Youngs Avenue that will generate natural gas that can be sold to National Grid.