National Grid "Gas Ball" Clean-Up Plan Signals that Time Is Running Out on Sag Harbor, NY

In gratitude for bringing 40 huge dump trucks a day loaded with Class-2 waste into the streets of Sag Harbor, NY and to pave the way for the approved conversion of the Keyspan gas ball site into overpriced condos, the citizens of Sag Harbor plan to honor their elected officials and the London-based developer; heading up the project by adding their own personal garbage to the year-long stream of deadly detritus.

"We would have preferred our elected officials to be shipped off with this crap to off-Island dump sites where they would have faced a horrific death by fire," a calm older resident who wished to remain anonymous, explained. "But that's murder, so we settled for the next best thing: we're going to bring our own personal garbage to the work site and piggyback on the developer's clean-up efforts."

Sag Harbor residents seem thrilled with the National Grid plan that will destroy the Village's quality of life at least until May 2009 (and that's assuming no project delays). They are looking forward to sections of Long Island Avenue being closed periodically and less parking spaces since the Village parking lot is slated to be turned over to this foreign-owned corporate entity. Sag Harbor residents can also expect other pleasantries courtesy of the National Grid plan such as daily detours, random traffic pattern changes and a general increase in the confusion and chaos on the Village's already congested roadways.

At a recent plan presentation meeting held on August 29, 2008 at Pierson Middle-High School, National Grid dispatched two flunkies with two consultants in tow, to address any and all concerns that any people might still have. At one point in the proceedings, Sag Harbor residents ooohed and ahhhed the proposed 15-foot wide soil wall that will ring the 2.2 acre site and the stark, understated beauty of a movable, pre-fabricated white tent-like structure that will house the poisonous soil. "It kinda looks like a condom," one local resident enthused.

The National Grid plan calls for the creation of wells to "recover" liquid contaminates by collecting up to 750,000 to one million gallons per day. Those contaminates will then be discharged by way of an above-ground pipeline into Sag Harbor's outer cove. "It's not drinkable pure," the consultant explained. "But it would be within the legal limits of treated water before being discharged into international waterways". There seem to be different concentrations of what is considered to be "acceptable levels of toxicity". (Does anyone remember Bhopal, Chernobyl and Love Canal?) All in all, time seems to be running out on the Sag Harbor we know and love.