Board of Health urges Select Board to send BESS (battery storage) bylaw to planning board for review

The Southampton Board of Health on March 31 asked the Select Board to refer proposed zoning language and regulatory safeguards for large battery energy storage systems (BESS) to the planning board for formal review.

Citing presentations from public-health and municipal-safety experts, the health official said large BESS installations are typically lithium-ion systems that can experience thermal runaway fires producing toxic smoke and that failure of containment could threaten wells and local water supplies. The presenter recommended a tiered approach to regulation, creation of community-benefit and decommissioning requirements, operation and maintenance plans, emergency-response planning with mutual-aid notification, proof of liability insurance and surety for end-of-life decommissioning, and fees to cover town review costs.

Members of the Select Board and others said current site-plan review, wetlands and groundwater protections already provide tools for review but acknowledged that the existing zoning and recent site-plan amendments did not explicitly address large battery systems. The board voted to receive the health department materials, forward them to the planning board for amendment consideration, and asked for a written update within 60 days on the planning board's schedule for review.

The move is procedural: any land-use bylaw change would require planning-board hearings and, where required by state law or local procedure, a town-meeting vote and possible ballot placement. The Select Board encouraged timely action so that if needed the amendment could be considered in a future town meeting cycle.