Tewksbury Conservation Commission Continues Hillman Energy Battery Storage Hearing to June

TEWKSBURY — May 27, 2026 — Tewksbury Conservation Commission unanimously continued a high-stakes public hearing on a proposed 125-megawatt lithium-ion battery energy storage facility near the Great Swamp to June 10, citing the absence of an independent peer review. East Point Energy, represented by Tyler Wren, and consultants Greg Hockmuth of Epsilon Associates and Frank Holmes of Langan Engineering presented a stormwater plan they said would reduce impervious surface on the four-plus-acre Hillman Street site from more than two acres to about one and one-half acres and eliminate all discharge to the town's municipal drain system. Commission Chair Dan Lauder, who disclosed filing a Form 23B conflict-of-interest notice with the Select Board after a citizen recusal petition, told the applicant flatly: "We won't make any decisions on this until we can see that peer review and digest it." More than a dozen residents, including adjacent property owner Maureen De Palma and resident Tom Berrigan, challenged the filing's groundwater modeling, seasonal high groundwater determination, and fire water containment, with Berrigan calling the stormwater design "incomplete, inconsistent, and unsupported." Under questioning, East Point Energy's Wren confirmed the stormwater basins would not capture all water from a thermal runaway event.