By Samantha Kummerer

7 NEWS WHDH

OAKHAM, MASS. (WHDH) - Clean energy or a ticking timebomb? That’s the question residents in one Massachusetts town grapple with as a proposal for a new energy project targets their backyards.

“It’s devastating,” Danielle Stevens explained.

The quiet rural town of Oakham, Massachusetts quickly captured Jim and Danielle Stevens’s heart.

“It’s perfect, it’s quiet, we’re growing all our fruit trees here, we have our animals here,” Jim Stevens said.

The couple moved to the central Massachusetts town four years ago but now they can’t imagine living anywhere else.

“I don’t think we’re going to find a place, for us that is as perfect and quiet as this,” Jim Stevens said.

But that quiet may not last.

In April, Rhynland Energy submitted a proposal to the state to build Moraga Energy Storage just steps from the Stevens’s backyard. The facility would house nearly 300 lithium-ion batteries. The 42 tons of batteries would store energy for when it is most needed. Projects like this are being proposed to support clean energy options and stabilize the power grid but the Stevens said the location of this facility puts them in jeopardy.

“We’ll lose our peace and quiet, we are going to lose all the equity in our home. Everything we have worked our whole lives for and put all of our eggs in this one basket,” Danielle Stevens said. “Now that is all at risk. We are not going to be able to be happy here.”

They aren’t just concerned for themselves, but for the whole town.

“We just happen to be in the worst spot for the construction but this is bad for the whole town,” Jim Stevens said.

Lithium-ion batteries power phones, laptops, e-bikes and electric cars. Over the past few years, fire departments across the country have warned that these batteries can explode, start fires and spread toxic gases when overheated or damaged.

When these batteries are scaled up, like at a battery plant, the damage is even greater.

“The potential is there. It’s not unprecedented.. we’ve seen fires at these storage facilities,” Danielle Stevens said. “It’s not unprecedented and it’s not old technology – some of these fires just happened this year.”

One of the biggest battery storage sites caught on fire back in January in Monterey County, California. The blaze forced 1,500 people to leave their homes. Fires have been reported at a handful of other battery storage facilities in California and New York over the past few years.

“No one could handle a fire in a place like this,” Oakham Fire Chief Timothy Howe said. “They burn for days. It doesn’t matter If you are a small town like us with an on-call fire department or a large 400-person department, you’re not putting it out.”

Howe said a battery fire in Oakham would be even worse because the town doesn’t have a public water system and relies on 20 volunteer firefighters.

But fire risk is still just one of the reasons the town is banning together to block the project.

Residents expressed concerns about the proposed site’s proximity to the Ware River Watershed, which runs into the Quabbin Reservoir.

“People need to understand that they might not know where Oakham is or have ever heard of the town before but this could impact a lot of people’s lives in a very, very difficult way,” the Stevens said.

Oakham residents said they worry the project would impact the drinking water for millions of Massachusetts residents who rely on the Quabbin Reservoir.

“If a fire did break out and there was run off into the ground, residents are going to lose their drinking water,” Howe said. “If we pollute that water, its not just us that is going to have a problem it is all of metro Boston.”

In a statement, Rhynland Energy told 7 Investigates, “The project is being developed in compliance with applicable state and federal regulations and includes modern safety systems designed to meet or exceed the established national standards.”

Brian O’Connor is a senior engineer at the National Fire Protection Association. He acknowledges that lithium-ion batteries can be hazardous.

“It generates toxic gas, flammable gas, has an explosion and fire potential, but these are things that regulations are constantly looking out for and trying to make sure that we’re mitigating and reducing these risks in a way that they can be acceptable to the community when they are installed,” O’Connor said.

He explained unlike batteries in consumer products, battery storage facilities have fire safety systems built into the design.

“As these are being installed, as fire fighters are responding to these fires, we’re getting better at understanding the hazards around them and being able to help reduce that to an acceptable level,” O’Connor said.

The National Fire Protection Association is currently researching the environmental impacts of lithium-ion batteries, including effects on air quality and contamination from fire runoff.

Former Somerville mayor Joe Curtatone now heads the nonprofit, Alliance for Climate Transition (ACT), which aims to expand clean energy.

He said these projects are safe.

“Battery storage systems go through rigorous review, they have to have an emergency response plan, there is constant monitoring, even virtual and real-time monitoring and advance safety protocols.,” Curtatone explained.

While there are standards and approval processes in place, Curtatone also said the concerns of residents in Oakham need to be addressed.

“These are fair questions to ask,” he said. “If any project warrants further protections and mitigation risks those need to be considered. We shouldn’t run away from those conversations. We need to lean into them, to the community, because it’s not about one project.”

Curtatone and other supporters believe battery plants are vital to the state’s environmental and economic future.

The project in Oakham is not the first or only battery energy storage facility in Massachusetts.

The state has doubled its energy storage capacity since 2021 and aims to reach a goal of 1,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) by the end of the year. Massachusetts currently has 644 MWh of installed energy storage and has nearly 13,000 MWh in the pipeline, according to state data.

“These goals aren’t some isolated policy goals these goals are tied to our future economy, our overall economic well-being, our public health, the future of our planet,” Curtatone explained.

Massachusetts’ energy storage goals coincide with the state’s overall push for cleaner energy options. Lithium-ion batteries help promote the transition to clean energy by storing energy generated by renewable and traditional power sources. By releasing that stored energy when production is low, they help reduce the state’s reliance on fossil fuels, which are often used as a backup power source.

To increase these storage facilities, the state allows companies to petition the state directly even if the town prohibits the construction of these projects.

Oakham is one of the towns that previously passed zoning laws prohibiting battery energy storage systems.

Now the decision to grant a zoning exception for the Moraga Energy Storage project rests with the Energy Facilities Sitting Board, an independent board tasked with reviewing large energy facility projects.

It’s a process that leaves Oakham residents feeling powerless.

“This is just another example of government overreach – the state is coming in and telling us what we can do with our land, what we can’t do with our land. They have said they don’t care about our bylaws, they don’t care about our voters and you can see people in town are very upset about that,” said Chief Howe.

The Energy Facilities Sitting Board is reviewing proposals submitted by other companies for battery plants in Tewksbury and Everett and has already approved projects in Carver and Medway.

Curtatone and other supporters believe more energy storage capability across the state will increase the reliability of electricity, reduce power outages and eventually make energy more affordable.

“We all stand to gain, our planet stands to gain, our health and community well-being stands to gain and our economy stands to thrive,” Curtatone said.

Back in Oakham, residents said they understand the benefits of these facilities, but can’t help but question – at what cost?

“We are not opposed to clean energy. I’m very much a proponent of trying to find cleaner options. This is about safer options. We can’t simply jump into what’s going on today if it’s not safe. We can’t risk our livelihoods. We can’t,” explained Aaron Langlois, a former Oakham selectmen.

The proposal for the Oakham project is still under review by the state’s Energy Facilities Sitting Board. The next step is a public hearing.