Featured Letter: If Riverhead can clear land for shopping, it can allow for more solar farms

To the editor:

I read the article in the News-Review of Jan. 16, 2020, concerning solar farms in Riverhead Town, specifically in the Calverton area. The thoughts that go through my mind when I travel Edwards Avenue toward the LIE are ones of gratitude that in a small way we are producing energy (though I may not reap the benefits) that will not harm us, the water supply, the air supply or the ground on which it is built.

It is interesting that the Town of Riverhead does not seem to hesitate to clear cut areas in order to continuously build more and more shopping areas. I watch as the soil is dug up to sink cesspools, water lines, etc. and is there not much said about the future damage to our land. I agree with [Frank] Beyrodt’s statement that “once a foundation goes in, it will never be farmed again.” Just take a ride up and down Route 58, construction is never-ending and the land is forever lost and wildlife has lost places to roam and find food. The deer and the turkeys are in my backyard grazing on birdseed and peanuts, and the deer jump over a six-foot-high fence “protecting” our vegetable garden and they had more vegetables than we had.

I certainly do not have the technical knowledge of how to dispose of solar panels in 20 to 30 years but I do know that over the next 20 to 30 years that the effluent from oil producing plants and the damage done by coal mining (including the human cost) will be far, far more costly to the world we live in than disposing of solar panels.

Our planet is slowly being destroyed and I can only hope that the Town of Riverhead will continue to do the little bit we can to help save us.