PLEASANT POINT – If the Passamaquoddy do not protect their land and traditional way of life, who will protect it for them?

That was the theme Monday discussed by opponents of a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal. An Oklahoma-based company hopes to build a $300 million natural gas terminal on tribal land.

The meeting was held at the home of Fredda and Leslie Paul. Fredda Paul began the meeting in the traditional way by preparing the smudging ceremony, a purification custom that the Passamaquoddy hold sacred.

Opponents fear that the community, which will vote on the issue today in a nonbinding referendum, may be seduced by dollar signs. The plan calls for yearly disbursements to individual tribal members. An LNG terminal could mean thousands of dollars in the pockets of the Passamaquoddy.

The only tribal governor to publicly oppose the plan is Hugh Akagi, chief of the New Brunswick band of the Passamaquoddy.

“My biggest problem about all of this is, number one, there’s not a whole lot of information,” he said. He said he had attended a meeting at Pleasant Point where questions were asked. “The message was there and it was very clear there were a lot of requests to take the referendum off the table,” he said. He said he was disappointed when the Pleasant Point tribal leaders did not take that request to heart.

Akagi said he planned to ask tribal leaders to step back and reconsider their support of the plan. A few weeks ago tribal leaders voted 4-3 to place the issue before voters.

“I just need to make that phone call and ask if [delaying the vote] is possible, but I honestly do not believe I would have that kind of influence,” he said. “But I would not mind making that phone call and ask if they would do something like that because to me it is respect.”

Opponent Deanna Francis said tribal leaders, who should be listening to the people, have turned their backs on those voices. She said tribal elders and others have appealed to the council to delay the vote for one year to give members an opportunity to learn more about the proposed plan.

The LNG proposal already faces stiff competition from Canada.

Earlier this month, New Brunswick officials approved Irving Oil’s plans for an LNG facility near Saint John. The proposed terminal would be at Mispec, a little more than an hour from Pleasant Point.

Nova Scotia moved one step closer to having its own LNG terminal after the province’s Environment Department and the federal Fisheries Department approved a proposal by a company there to build a $415 million plant at Bear Head.

The numerous proposals would connect with the Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline, which carries natural gas from Sable Island off Nova Scotia through Maine and on to markets in the northeastern United States.

Tribal state Rep. Fred Moore said Monday the pipeline would be able to handle the three projects that are inching forward. “This pipeline is more than large enough to accommodate the quantity of gas that would come through. There are two scheduled for Nova Scotia, one for New Brunswick and Pleasant Point if they so decide to have one,” he said. “The pipeline has the capacity to accommodate more.”

Art MacKay, a biologist from St. Stephen, New Brunswick, talked about the pollution that for years has been so much a part of the Down East area because of the paper companies that are located upstream from the reservation. “He who poops upstream gets it down here,” he told the small group. He urged the group to fight outside exploitation.

When Mike Collingsworth of Millinocket, who said he worked in the LNG industry, asked to speak in favor of natural gas, he was turned down. “I just came over here to offer my input to give a balanced perspective to this,” he said. “I have seen these debates going on up and down the coast, and there doesn’t seem to be a balanced perspective. It seems like it is all bashing the LNG industry.”

After Collingsworth left, the group’s second speaker, Lorin Hollander of Stockton Springs, talked about the problems attendant with an LNG terminal. He said security would have to be stepped up to protect tankers. He said in other communities where LNG terminals had been proposed it would have been up to the community to pay for security costs which he said would total around $80,000 per ship. “Will the tribe be prepared to pay for security?” he asked.

He also said that an LNG terminal would ruin opportunities to develop the county’s ecotourism industry. “LNG can’t compare,” he said.

Moore, who did not attend the meeting, discounted Hollander’s concerns. He said he did not believe Osama bin Laden was concerned about Washington County.

“If [ships] are going to be attacked, they won’t be attacked here. LNG freighters are required to give notice to the U.S. Coast Guard 96 hours prior to their arrival in the port. They arrive under escort,” he said.

Moore called demands for more information nothing more than a delaying tactic by opponents.

“Many tribal members are tired of hearing about it, and it is turning into information overload,” he said. “No amount of information disseminated over the next few weeks will help anyone arrive at a decision other than what they have now.”