Monique Masse has visited Raquette Lake, a small Adirondacks hamlet, every summer since she was born. In the late 1950s, her grandparents purchased a camp on the lake, and today, she comes up from Nassau every summer with her husband, Raymond.

Raquette Lake, is a pristine getaway that helps ensure the safety of the entire St Lawrence Seaway, Masse said. The lake feeds Raquette River, which flows north to the St. Lawrence River eventually making its way to the Atlantic Ocean through the St. Lawrence Seaway.

“It's part of me,” Masse said. “I think it's part of everyone who visits here. People come here for a reason.”

So anything that Masse thinks could harm this area or this lake would be a giant “no.”

But National Grid has proposed a lithium battery storage system on top of a 750-foot-high hill on the lake’s shoreline. There would be 12 tractor trailer-sized modules over 2.4 acres of land storing energy power for later use, if needed.

“Energy storage technologies are a critical component of our all-of-the-above approach to the clean energy future and decarbonizing our energy systems,” National Grid said in a statement.

But to Masse, the technology is too new, with too many unknowns. She pointed to a recent fire at a battery storage facility in Jefferson County that officials didn’t know how to put out and had no idea what was seeping into the air or into the ground. The fire burned so hot that it took more than a week for firefighters to access it.

And if something like that happened at Raquette Lake?

“Everything could be changed forever,” Masse said.

Masse, along with others in a group called Protect Raquette Lake, have pushed the Town of Long Lake for a year-long moratorium on the project. The town agreed to the moratorium, and it will now be another year before the project could kick off.

“It's wonderful. It's a huge win for us,” Masse said, adding that in time, the sites could become safer once more is learned about the project.

National Grid said it respects Long Lake's decision and remains committed to finding the right solution for bringing renewable energy to the region.