A grassroots movement of residents concerned about the construction of a new battery storage facility in Watsonville held a public meeting on Monday evening to discuss the dangers of such a project and rally locals by passing around petitions and encouraging people to join the group.
The meeting, which grew raucous at times with many people interrupting and catcalling, was held at the Watsonville Church of the Nazarene, less than one mile away from Minto Road and the proposed BESS site.
Many of the nearly 200 people that attended live close to the site.
It was announced last winter that a new battery energy storage system (BESS) owned by Massachusetts-based New Leaf Energy is planned for construction at the end of Minto Road, off of Green Valley Road. That location was chosen for the project, which is called Seahawk, because of its close proximity to a PG&E substation.
Although the plan has not yet been approved by the county, many local citizens are wary of BESS’s after several fires erupted at a facility in nearby Moss Landing in January.
The Minto Road facility would occupy 14 acres with the capacity to store 200 megawatts and 800 megawatt hours. It would include 300 individual units that are roughly the size of shipping containers, according to Fire Marshal Chris Walters of Cal Fire, who spoke at the meeting.
Many of the meeting’s speakers and attendees worried about the potential harm that a BESS on Minto Road would cause to nearby residents, wildlife, and food systems.
Within a five-mile radius of the proposed facility are multiple lakes, as well as five schools, neighborhoods, and agricultural fields. One member of the audience inquired about the safety of the Schapiro Knolls apartment complex–located right next to the PG&E substation on Minto Road–if the BESS is approved.
Nina Audino, a retired high school teacher and the organizer of the meeting, said the community plays a vital role in solving this issue for Santa Cruz county.
“We need your help to stop this type of battery energy storage facility,” she said.
Audino made the distinction between lithium ion and non-lithium ion battery energy storage, saying that the group is only opposed to the former.
“We are one-hundred-percent behind green energy,” Audino said.
She spoke about the importance of spreading the message to others in the community to expand the group and pressure the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors to vote against the project.
The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to make a decision regarding New Leaf Energy’s application on or before Sept. 9.
“Our group, along with other groups of concerned residents, is advocating for a panel of experts to advise the county on how to create a more restrictive, regulated BESS ordinance with more safety regulations attached,” Audino said.
The movement’s immediate goal is to convince the county to approve a temporary ban on lithium BESS’s and hold town hall meetings while they draft an ordinance.
“So far, the county has not responded and we’ve been trying since January 28th,” Audino said.
Audino referred to the City of Morro Bay, which recently passed a two-year ban on BESS projects that gives the city time to create a permanent ordinance.
Walters said that the Santa Cruz County Fire Department requested that more fire hydrants and a secondary access route be added to the area if the project is approved.
Supervisor Felipe Hernandez was slated to speak, but was instead represented by his Chief of Staff, Ramon Gomez.
Gomez said that the California Public Utilities Commission “adopted new regulations that would make battery storage safer.”
The facility in Moss Landing that caught fire would “never be approved under the current state fire and design codes,” according to Gomez.
There are still many unknowns about the long-term effects of the fire at the Moss Landing BESS, and whether the new design for the proposed Watsonville facility would be safer.
“It’s critical that we keep voicing this as a united group,” Audino said.
The group is part of a larger movement called Californians for Safe Energy Storage, a coalition of eleven California counties.
Their next meeting is scheduled for May 12.
