CALAIS – For the past 24 hours Down East, it has been LNG, LNG and more LNG.

Even the U.S. ambassador to Canada, David Wilkins, got an earful during a visit Friday about plans to build two liquefied natural gas terminals in eastern Washington County.

Wilkins was in the city to talk about a proposed $100 million bridge that eventually will connect Calais with St. Stephen, New Brunswick.

But Greg Thompson, a member of Canada’s Parliament, took the opportunity to apprise the ambassador of two controversial plans to site LNG terminals in Maine.

The Oklahoma-based Quoddy Bay LLC this year entered into an agreement with the Passamaquoddy Tribe to build a terminal at Split Rock at Pleasant Point with an eight-mile underwater pipeline connecting to three tanks in Robbinston.

The Washington-based Downeast LNG hopes to build a terminal and tank system in Mill Cove, also in Robbinston.

Thompson has been a staunch opponent of the projects. “Passamaquoddy Bay would be the transportation [site] of LNG tankers through internal Canadian waters,” he told the ambassador.

Thirty years ago, Thompson said, when an oil company wanted to build a refinery in Eastport, the Canadian government said no to the movement of oil tankers past Head Harbour Passage near Campobello Island.

“So that’s one that is going to bubble to the top eventually in Ottawa,” Thompson said, referring to the movement of LNG tankers through Head Harbour Passage.

Transport Canada, Thompson said, rated Head Harbour Passage as “the most dangerous passage in all of Canada. It’s a very narrow passage. So there’s a lot of controversy.”

But retired businessman Harold Silverman, who lives in Calais, said the challenge is to balance the scenic nature of the area with jobs. “We’d like to see a blend between environment and economic chances for another generation that works here,” Silverman said.

A day before the ambassador was hearing about LNG, Cobscook Bay area fishermen met with members of Downeast LNG.

It was clear after that meeting that the fishermen were concerned about the impact both projects would have on the lobster industry.

Downeast LNG developers Rob Wyatt and Dean Girdis promised fishermen there would be “zero” interference with fishing but agreed if there was a problem they would compensate fishermen for lost gear.

The fishermen were still concerned. They talked about ships traveling through their fishing grounds, their large propellers chewing up their trap ropes. They also talked about the loss of lobster tags which, they said, could not be replaced. They also worried about the safety exclusion zone around LNG ships that could interfere with fishing.

The fishermen also expressed concern about the impact the project would have on the lobster nursery that they said was part of Mill Cove, as well as the impact the LNG tankers would have on right whale and harbor porpoises.

Wyatt and Girdis promised they would work with lobstermen to try to resolve these issues.

After the meeting with the fishermen, Wyatt and Girdis met with Eastport residents.

Before the meeting, Eastport resident Jon Bragdon handed out a sheet titled “LNG’s 60-year Safety Record.”

The sheet detailed tanker accidents that began in 1965 and LNG explosions that began in 1944.

Bragdon referred to a recent incident in Bergen, Norway.

He said that in September 2004 a fully loaded LNG tanker went adrift. “Its engines failed in bad weather off the coast of Norway,” he said. “They found that their anchors were useless because of the stormy conditions. Tugboats couldn’t get the tanker under tow until the ship was only 30 yards from hitting rocks.”

Eventually, he said, the tugs were able to pull the boat away from the rocks.

“We live on an island. We have twice as many as 800 people,” he said. “We have a long shoreline. We know just how bad the weather gets in the wintertime. We don’t want to have to personally go through what the Island of Fedje had to go through last September.”