Owner seeks to end battery storage facility lease

Warwick Valley BBA LLC, the property owner of the Church Street site where a battery energy storage site fire occurred in December, is seeking to terminate its lease with Convergent Energy and Power, the operator of the facility.

According to a statement provided by Warwick Village Mayor Michael Newhard and read by Warwick Village Trustee Thomas McKnight as Newhard was absent from the Feb. 2 Village Board meeting, Warwick Valley BBA’s legal counsel via letter informed the village’s building inspector of the owner’s extreme concern over the fire and of their intention to terminate the lease, regain possession of the property, and facilitate removal of the battery system. The letter to the building department noted the process may take time because of state landlord-tenant laws and the bankruptcy of the battery manufacturer. The property owner’s counsel also sent a letter to Convergent Energy and Power outlining alleged lease defaults, including building code violations, permit issues, a mechanics lean on the property, and release of hazardous and regulated substances.

LaBella Associates, the engineering consulting firm hired by the village to investigate the environmental impact of the Church Street fire, provided the village with a written synopsis, under the meeting’s correspondence, of Orange County HAZMAT’s air monitoring of certain chemicals in and around the site of fire, which is available on the village’s website under the “residents” tab. According to the report, the highest measured concentration of each chemical fell below federal and state regulations, where such a limit is provided. For chemicals that do not have a federal or state limit, Orange County HAZMAT compared them with Occupational Safety and Health Administration short-term exposure limits, noting that these are designed for workplace air quality and not general ambient air.

McKnight confirmed LaBella Associates would be conducting a soil sampling of the site in late February or early March to further assess the environmental impact of the fire.

Trustee Mary Collura said the board is still working on locating the missing Environmental Assessment Form associated with the site’s initial review process.