1. We are a group of working class residents of East Hampton.
2. Of the 500 families directly affected by the placement of the poles, only 50 received one letter from LIPA announcing a Village Meeting in September 2014. Those who attended were told it was merely an upgrade to their current electricity. They were not told that 60 foot poles were going in front of their homes 20’ from their bedroom windows with triple the existing power.
Find out what's happening in East Hamptonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
3. Poles are 2 to 3 times the height of our homes (pyramid laws prohibit other structures) wind turbines can't be placed where they could fall on structures. Why does it not apply to utility poles?
4. Town Residents were not told that generators that powered 4,000 households (out of our total 8,000 households in the Town) were taken down in May 2013 thus putting the community at higher risk for brownouts summer 2013 and 2014, before alternative power was up. We did not have a brownout in 2013. We want those generators back at PSEG’s expense for the Summer of 2014.
Find out what's happening in East Hamptonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
5. One of our members asked at the Sept meeting if the work could go underground and LIPA’s response was no. Not we can look at it. But no. It was a done deal for them.
6. The Village and Town made mistakes, did not operate in the best interests of the community, but the Town Administration is no longer in office, and we know for sure that the Town Comprehensive Plan was not followed.
7. LIPA/PSEG did not operate in a transparent and open way. Unlike Southampton where the poles were laid along the roads and people saw them in advance and were able to react, the East Hampton poles were stored away from public sight. In addition, the pole work was not started until our 4 month right to appeal was up. Both seem to be unlikely coincidences.
8. For those of us who fear the health risks from electromagnetic fields and preservatives on the poles, as well as the harmful effects on our environment, this is a passionate and major issue. So yes, we are putting up signs and expressing our views. PSEG is only at the table because we have pushed so hard and because we are making sure our politicians hear us. As our spokesperson said at our recent PSEG meeting, tobacco companies once assured all of us that there were no health risks associated with cigarette smoking. We are not willing to risk our lives or our families’ lives until we have absolute proof. There are plenty of cancer clusters around utility transmission sites.
9. These lines provide power to everyone in the Town of East Hampton from Wainscott to Montauk. Whether the poles are in front of your house or not, they affect your Town, your trees, your water, your soil. None of us can afford an increase in our rates, and we are fighting to get them as low as possible and to get as much support as possible from many different sources. All of the original working people from Save East Hampton who formed the group, were willing to hire a lawyer out of their own pockets to try to find out what the options were for the whole town. This group has achieved a lot in one month.
10. Why would we consider Overhead routes when climate change is an accepted fact, with fears of trees, wires and poles falling on houses. These new poles will stand up to 130 mph winds, but Long Island was hit with winds that exceeded 180mph in the Hurricane of 1938.
11. What PSEG is doing here, will be happening all over Long Island. We have a responsibility to speak up. We need to build the best, most cost effective, safest power plan for our future.
We appreciate the outpouring of support we have received from thousands of people. We need the community to write to our major politicians and tell them to HALT THE OVERHEAD PROJECT NOW!
Email addresses are:
Governor Cuomo:
http://www.governor.ny.gov/contact/GovernorContactForm.php
Audrey Zibelman, CEO State of New York Department of Public Service, audrey.zibelman@dps.ny.gov.
Ralph Suozzi, Chairman LIPA Board of Trustees, palberti@lipower.org
John McMahon, President LIPA, palberti@lipower.org
David Daly, President PSEG LI, palberti@lipower.org
Please visit us at our Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/saveeh
Sign our petition at:
https://www.change.org/petitions/stop-pse-g-from-overhead-trasmission-line
