Rural bay no place for LNG

I was astonished to read your editorial of Aug. 27-28, “Lording it over Maine,” in which you suggest “the same concerns should extend to ships headed to Saint John.”

Let me state at the outset, I oppose siting of any liquefied natural gas terminal anywhere within Passamaquoddy Bay, whether on the Canadian or U.S. side. This bay is simply not a suitable place for such a facility.

And people may ask, much as your editor has questioned, how I, or New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord, or many others who have taken this stance, can support the LNG terminal for Saint John, yet oppose the proposals for such a terminal in Passamaquoddy Bay. Compare locations and it becomes very obvious why the Saint John site is a good place for LNG, while Passamaquoddy Bay is not.

First, the Saint John LNG terminal is to be located at Canaport, which is already an industrial location, being the terminal for bulk oil for Canada’s largest oil refinery. Secondly, there are already large tankers coming to Saint John in a straightforward, well-established shipping lane, well away from any coasts, well out in the Bay of Fundy. Canaport is out on a headland, facing the open Bay of Fundy, several miles from Saint John.

Compare that with the proposed sites for Passamaquoddy. Nobody could call this beautiful shoreline industrial. This is a very rural bay that celebrates a special relationship with nature: the sea, the coast, the intertidal shore. It would be a crime against our heritage and our future to change this beautiful coast into an area for heavy industry.

Consider the waterway access to Passamaquoddy. Huge LNG tankers would have to deal with the serpentine Head Harbor Passage, narrow, tortuous and subject to very powerful tidal currents. Although new vessels are equipped with very sophisticated navigational equipment, and any proposal would be expected to call for tugs to accompany the tankers, the powerful tidal currents change radically several times each day, and so the opportunity for human error is vastly magnified. The waterway access to Saint John, on the other hand, is far out in the open Bay of Fundy, in well-established shipping lanes, well separated, inbound and outbound.

We all know that the right whale species is in danger. And we know that right whales come into the Bay of Fundy during the summer months. Indeed, major shipping into Saint John a few years ago moved the shipping lanes in and out of Saint John, to avoid the summering area for right whales. It is to the credit of the shipping industry in Saint John that they did this, in an effort to try to avoid hurting right whales.

However, if LNG tankers enter the mouth of the Bay of Fundy in the South Channel on the shipping lanes, in order to come into Passamaquoddy Bay, the tankers would have to go directly across the summering area for right whales. While shipping to Saint John has taken steps to avoid right whale collisions, locating LNG in Passamaquoddy would send shipping into a blatant disregard for the endangered right whale, which others are trying to protect.

Then there is the thermal radiation danger zone around the terminal itself, and around the vessels coming and going in and out of Head Harbor Passage. In the event that the natural gas became ignited, either by accident or terrorist attack, there are a lot of people in the area around Passamaquoddy Bay who would be put at risk of death or serious burns.

By contrast, the Saint John site is far removed from the city, well out on a headland, with very few people living nearby, nor does anyone live near the vessel track. Indeed, one of the foremost experts on LNG siting, MIT Professor James Fay, looking at both sites, stated that Saint John was far better suited for LNG than a proposal he reviewed in Passamaquoddy Bay, for which he had grave concerns, for both the site and the vessel track through Head Harbor Passage.

Then there is the exclusion zone around a tanker carrying LNG. While this zone has not been determined for the proposals for Passamaquoddy Bay, the exclusion zones would be very disruptive to normal water activity in the bay – fishing, aquaculture and tour boats, along with any ferry service that must cross the tanker track. Definitely the Deer Island-Campobello and Deer Island-Eastport ferries would be affected. And quite possibly the Grand Manan ferry.

It would be completely unacceptable to the people of Grand Manan to have their lifeline to the rest of the world disrupted by an exclusion zone surrounding a tanker carrying LNG, whether it be into Passamaquoddy Bay or anywhere else.

By contrast, with shipping lanes being far out at sea, an exclusion zone around a tanker to Saint John would have little effect on our water-borne economy. There is far more room well out in the Bay of Fundy for fishermen and the well- established shipping lanes to co-exist.

Passamaquoddy Bay is not a suitable location for any terminal for LNG, either Canadian or American.

Eric Allaby is a member of the New Brunswick Legislature for Fundy Isles.