Somerset Board of Health Asserts Review Authority Over Proposed Battery Storage Facility

SOMERSET — April 16, 2026 — Somerset Board of Health asserts oversight authority over proposed Riverside Avenue battery storage facility. At an April 16 informational session, Michael Hugo, Director of Strategy and Government Relations for the Massachusetts Association of Health Boards, told the three-member board that it holds broad powers under nuisance and noisome trade law to impose conditions on or prohibit Somerset Energy Storage, LLC's proposed facility at 1606 Riverside Avenue — powers he said no Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has ever overturned. Hugo described lithium-ion battery fires as producing hydrogen fluoride, hydrogen cyanide, and heavy metals, citing modeling from a Tewksbury facility showing toxic smoke could reach a 140-person memory-care assisted living home in 67 seconds. He also described filing comments with the state Energy Facility Siting Board that resulted in the DPH commissioner being added to that body and public health protections written into EFSB project-scoring criteria. The Board of Health, chaired by Todd Costa and joined by Alan Smith and first-day member Joseph Bednarek, directed staff to send a letter to the applicant requiring it to appear before the board, and said it will consult with legal counsel on which firm — Harrington and Heed or KP Law — to retain for the proceedings.