United Riverhead Terminal seeks postponement of Dec. 16 hearing

United Riverhead Terminal has requested a postponement of the public hearing that is supposed to be continued next Tuesday evening before the Riverhead Town Board.

The board opened its public hearing Oct. 21 on URT’s application to expand its existing facilities with the construction of two 19,000-gallon tanks for ethanol storage and allow the distribution of gasoline from the Sound Shore Road facility. URT proposes to convert two existing tanks, currently used to store heating oil, to gasoline storage. The gasoline will be received from tankers at its off-shore platform and delivered to the terminal via URT’s existing pipeline, according to company officials.

After a lengthy hearing session, during which neighboring residents turned out in force mostly in opposition to the proposal and an attorney hired by the Northville Beach Civic Association questioned the town’s adherence to the requirements of the State Environmental Quality Review Act, the board adjourned the hearing to Dec. 16. Residents requested more time to digest the proposal and the board also asked the applicant to improve its traffic impact analysis.

URT consultant Victor Prusinowski said today the company is asking for an adjournment “in order to complete its due diligence” on issues identified by the town for further analysis. He said URT requested an adjournment of two months.

Supervisor Sean Walter said today the board will discuss the request, which he has no problem with and believes board members will assent to it as well.

Walter, who at the Oct. 21 hearing said the town had not yet issued its declaration of significance on the application, admits he was mistaken. A resolution adopted by the town board Oct. 7 contained the language of a negative declaration following the town board’s declaration of lead agency: “Riverhead Town Board hereby declares itself to be the lead agency for the special permit application of United Riverhead Terminal New York which it classifies as an Unlisted action for the purposes of SEQR compliance and further declares the action to be without significant impact on the natural or social environmental and that an Environmental Impact Statement need not be prepared..”

Under SEQRA, a negative declaration finds that a proposal will not have significant environmental impacts and dispenses with the need to prepare an environmental impact statement. A positive declaration means the project may have significant environmental impacts and an environmental impact statement must be prepared.

“The town planning department is going to address the negative declaration,” Walter said in an interview today. “They thought they were on firm footing,” he said.

“People don’t want to understand that they already have have their permits to do this from the state. It’s not a town permit,” Walter said. “What they’re asking for [from the town] is very minor in comparison. Really the major issue is traffic — and unfortunately for United Riverhead Terminal they did a terrible job of presenting a traffic analysis.”

The State DEC, which has already approved URT’s permits, also issued a negative declaration on the action.

URT officials said it was the state that initially approached the company about converting some tanks to gasoline storage following Super Storm Sandy and the resulting gasoline shortage.

If the board agrees to the applicant’s adjournment request, the Dec. 16 hearing would likely  be adjourned to Feb. 17 at 7 p.m., Walter said.

Neil Krupnick, president of the Northville Beach Civic Association said his group has no problem with the adjournment and, in fact, would like it to be longer. “We think the hearing should be postponed until the late spring, early summer, when the North Fork’s snow birds come back home,” Krupnick said today.