PSEG Long Island and the Long Island Power Authority have filed a federal lawsuit against the Town of North Hempstead alleging their First Amendment rights are violated under a town ordinance that requires the utility to notify residents of utility poles treated with hazardous chemicals.
In a Jan. 9 lawsuit filed in U.S. Eastern District Court, PSEG and LIPA allege that signs placed on utility poles treated with pentachlorophenol, which is classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as a Group 2B carcinogen, “go beyond mere statements of the facts.”
“Rather, through words, the signs urge the public to believe that Plaintiffs are exposing the public to a nefarious or harmful substance,” according to the lawsuit, filed by the Manhattan Attorney Steven C. Russo of the firm Greenberg Traurig LLP. “The Ordinance therefore violates both the First Amendment and the New York Constitution.”
The town last September passed legislation requiring warning signs to be placed on all chemically-treated utility poles installed after Jan. 1, 2014, which included about 200 80-foot poles PSEG installed last year in parts of Great Neck, Manhasset and Port Washington. Town officials and residents had complained about the height of the poles and what they said was a lack of notice in erecting them.
North Hempstead Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth at the time described the new ordinance requiring notice of poles treated with hazardous chemicals as “precedent-setting,” saying the town was the first municipality to pass such legislation.
But according to the lawsuit, which seeks exemption for the two companies from the ordinance as well as attorney fees, the law unfairly singles out utility poles, and does not include other “similarly situated wood products” treated with chemicals, like docks, piers, bulkheads, fence posts, park benches, picnic tables and railroad ties.
The town also passed a law in September requiring utilities to remove decommissioned utility poles, also known as “double poles,” that are not taken down when new ones are installed.
North Hemsptead spokesman Ryan Mulholland said Tuesday that 187 double poles have been removed throughout the town, with the remaining 30 to be removed by early 2015.
