Three LNG Projects Proposed For Passamaquoddy Bay

Save the Bay Group Engages Whole Bay Study; Quoddy Bay LLC Files with FERC

by Laurie Schreiber

Proposed site, 10 acres near route 190 at Split Rock, would support a half-mile long pier at which two ships a week could dock and deliver LNG that would be piped to storage tanks inland.

The siting of a liquefied natural gas terminal in Passamaquoddy Bay has dominated the news Downeast for the past year and a half. As of last August, three companies—one with local principals—had announced their intentions to locate piers, pipes and storage tanks between Calais and Perry and promised the infusion of millions of dollars into the region. Representatives of three nations joined forces in opposition to an industry that they perceived as inappropriate and intrusive, and put their money where their mouths were, laying out $50,000 for an independent study of the impact of LNG on all of Passamaquoddy Bay.

There were informational gatherings—some open to the public, some behind closed doors. There were protest rallies, mailings by interest groups to local residents, town votes taken and scheduled for the future. Two lawsuits—one that could potentially block the most viable of the three projects—were pending in state and federal courts. As of last month, only one developer had formally notified the federal government, the ultimate arbiter of any project, of its intent to proceed.

The Newest Developers
The most recent of the three LNG efforts was brought forward last August by two state representatives: Fred Moore Jr., who represents the Passamaquoddy Tribe, and Ian Emery, a Republican from Cutler who speaks for the Machias area. Calling themselves BP Consulting and with alleged (but unnamed) financial backers, they proposed a $500 million facility on 250 acres in the Red Beach district of Calais between Devil’s Head Park and St. Croix Island, an outcropping in the St. Croix River celebrated for being home in 1604 to the first settlement in the New World. BP Consulting has won preliminary approval from the Calais city council, and Baileyville is on record as favoring the concept of an LNG facility, but as yet no specific project.

In July, Dean Girdis of Washington, D.C., principal of Downeast LNG, announced plans for a $400 million complex of pier, pipes and storage tanks on 80 acres at Robbinston’s Mill Cove. Downeast LNG has obtained a four-year option on the land from owner Thomas McLaughlin, a Phoenix, Arizona lawyer. The company hosted an informational meeting in late October at which it touted its safety measures (double-hulled tankers, rarity of LNG catching fire or exploding). At the same time, area fire chiefs heard of heightened concerns from the state Fire Marshal’s Office. Girdis told the 25 residents who attended that Downeast LNG intended to file its application with the government in a month or so, as well as a letter of intent with the coast guard. At this writing, neither has been done, but Robbinston residents gathered on the subject December 28 and will vote to approve or disapprove the project on January 10.

SPB’s Whole Bay Campaign
Just as Quoddy Bay LLC is the biggest player in the LNG game, so has Save Passamaquoddy Bay emerged as the toughest, most determined David-facing-Goliath in the standoff. It is spearheaded on the U.S. side by the same businesswomen—Linda Godfrey and Nancy Asante—who, with friends and family backing, took an old brick building on Eastport’s Water Street and transformed it into a gallery/conference center showcasing Passamaquoddy Bay artisans and offering meeting space and education in sustainable, suitable economic ventures appropriate to the Bay.

From St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Arthur MacKay of the St. Croix Estuary Project speaks out for SPB, ready with impressive dollar figures on the existing ventures that depend on the Bay. Vera Francis, a Passamaquoddy educator, heads up the group within the Tribe that opposes LNG and calls itself We Take Care of Our Homeland, and makes up the third nation in the anti-LNG alliance.

The group’s most ambitious endeavor is the commissioning of an independent “whole bay” study by Yellow Wood Associates of St. Albans, Vermont at a cost of $50,000.

Linda Godfrey of the group Save Passamaquoddy Bay. Godfrey, an Eastport business woman is spearheading the opposition to LNG development in Passamaquoddy Bay. Siting existing economics that woud be threatened by LNG facilities, the two groups are in a David and Goliath stand off.

Quoddy Bay LLC’s Application to FERC, SPBay’s Response
By letter dated December 16, 2005, Quoddy Bay LLC filed notice with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that it intended to go forward with an import and re-gasification terminal at Split Rock in Perry, capable of storing, vaporizing and sending up to two billion cubic feet of natural gas per day. Up to 180 ships per year would bring the gas in in liquid form, where it would be piped to three 160,000 cubic meter storage tanks. From there, it would travel through a 35- or 40-mile send-out pipeline to the Maritimes and North East Pipeline system. Questions are fielded by Sherri Booye at (434) 591-0018 or nizrda@earthlink.net. [Booye is a member of the prestigious New York law firm Skadden Arps Slate Meagher and Elom.]

In response to the filing, Linda Godfrey of the lead opposition group, Save Passamaquoddy Bay which includes Canadians and Passamaquoddy Tribe members, said her group was “appalled,” first because the filing was announced by project manager Brian Smith and his father, Donald, of Oklahoma-based Smith Cogeneration, at a press conference in Augusta, four hours away from the facility site and local media, and secondly because of what was in the filing.

The project laid out in the pre-application filing, she said, is “totally different” from the original one at Gleason’s Cove that Quoddy Bay LLC had been describing to the public. The number of tankers, daily capacity, and pier capable of handling two ships at a time (thus necessitating eight tug boats) she called “huge” compared to the publicly presented project. The proposed shipping lanes are so close to Deer Island that they would decimate fishing gear, she said, and the facility would probably mandate the removal of the Passamaquoddys’ school, church and elderly apartments at Pleasant Point.

The plan requires running the pipeline between the pier and the storage tanks under Route 190, yet the City of Eastport has not been consulted, she said, and the line continues across Cobscook Bay from Half Moon Cove (also in Eastport) supported by trestle to the site of the storage tanks on tribal land between the Cannon Hill and Old Eastport (Toll Bridge) Roads. The send-out pipeline traverses the towns of Charlotte, Cooper, Alexander and Meddybemps before hooking into the Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline Company line at Princeton. Godfrey notes that there are no air or water studies, components which are usually in place before a pre-application, that the company showed evidence of having neither foreign suppliers nor domestic markets. “They’re not legitimate contenders,” she asserts.

“This is a life-changing proposition,” she insists. The pre-application offers a look at what she calls “an unbelievably huge project,” and should serve as a “wakeup call” to all around the Bay, especially residents of Perry, Eastport, Deer Island and Campobello, who will feel the effects of lights 24/7, sirens, surveillance cameras, and security measures that could include divers, helicopters, and even gunboats. The application and SPB’s concerns can be viewed at their website: www.savepassamaquoddybay.org.

The developer has 180 days after the pre-application filing to file a formal application. Interested parties have two to three weeks to file and achieve intervener status after that. FERC’s five-person begins considering the location, safety, environmental issues, holds public hearings, drafts an environmental impact statement, and customarily takes an average of 10 months before rendering a decision, which can be appealed. The coast guard also reviews the components of the application addressing ship transit, security and safety at sea. Other permits, such as Clean Water and Air and Coastal Zone Management permits, may be needed.

FERC’s job is to inform applicants of what they need to provide to comply with the laws surrounding their applications. According to a feature in the November issue of Downeast Magazine, FERC has rejected only one LNG application. If the three nations that make up Save Passamaquoddy Bay have their way, Quoddy Bay LLC’s request will be the second.