East Hampton residents who live near toxic plume urge health screenings (newsday.com)

East Hampton residents who live around a battery storage plant suspected of causing a toxic plume after a 2023 fire are asking the state to provide health screening amid worries they may have ingested impacted water for years. But the state Health Department, in responses to Newsday, said it doesn’t believe such biomonitoring “would be useful.” It instead is offering to take residents' questions and concerns directly via email or phone. Residents concerned about the impacts of the water say that's not enough. "It's unconscionable, that's what I think," said Charlie Esposito, who lives directly across the street from the battery site and is one of the residents who pressed East Hampton town to demand health testing. In a letter sent to state and county agencies Thursday following an occasionally heated public meeting last week, Town of East Hampton Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez wrote that residents who consume water from private and public wells are “concerned they have been ingesting” water laden with forever chemicals for “over three years.” “How can the New York State Department of Health facilitate regular medical testing and health monitoring of residents?” she asked in the letter, which was sent to the state Health Department and...