Tribal members file suit over Split Rock land lease agreement

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PLEASANT POINT – A civil lawsuit filed in federal court Wednesday by six members of the Passamaquoddy Tribe contends that four federal laws were broken when the Bureau of Indian Affairs approved a land lease agreement with an Oklahoma developer who wants to build a liquefied natural gas facility on the Pleasant Point reservation.

The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Bangor, seeks an order setting aside the lease for Quoddy Bay LLC and directing the BIA to fully comply with all applicable laws.

The six Passamaquoddy who have brought the complaint, all residents of Pleasant Point, are David Moses Bridges, Vera J. Francis, Hilda Lewis, Deanna Francis, Reginald Joseph Stanley and Mary Bassett.

They believe their viewpoints were not represented last spring when the Tribal Council signed a partnership agreement with Quoddy Bay in May and the BIA’s approval was expedited by June 1.

Five of them will be present for a news conference at 11 a.m. today at Split Rock. The six belong to a group called We Protect Our Homeland, or, Nulankeyutmonen Nkihaqmikon in the Passamaquoddy language.

The complaint names as defendants Robert K. Impson, the acting regional director for the Eastern region of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and Gale Norton, secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior.

The complaint states that Norton is the federal official “ultimately responsible for compliance with the laws governing BIA’s actions in this case.”

The federal government has 60 days to answer the complaint.

Patrick Parenteau of Vermont is the lead attorney on the complaint for We Protect Our Homeland.

“The task we face now is to get a hearing in front of the judge as quickly as we can,” Parenteau said Wednesday. “But it will be a dance of lawyers for a while. We don’t expect a decision before six months.”

The lawsuit challenges Impson’s approval last June 1 of the “ground lease” to Quoddy Bay LLC to allow construction of an LNG terminal at Split Rock.

Split Rock was Quoddy Bay’s second choice of location for an LNG terminal on reservation land.

The announcement of Split Rock – and the BIA’s accelerated approval of the site – came just two months after Gleason Cove was shot down by next-door Perry residents as suitable for LNG development.

On the far side of the reservation from Gleason Cove, Split Rock is considered a sacred site. It’s a place on the Passamaquoddy Bay where Indian traditions are celebrated and children learn to respect their roots and environment.

The complaint alleges that several federal laws were violated by the BIA in the process of approving the Quoddy Bay lease. The complaint contends that:

. The BIA failed to conduct an environmental assessment on the impacts of siting a major industrial facility at Split Rock as required by the National Environmental Policy Act.

. The BIA violated the National Historic Preservation Act by failing to consider the historic significance of the Split Rock site.

. The BIA violated the Long Term Leasing Act by failing to consider the impact of the lease on the nearby Pleasant Point community, and failing to insure that the tribe receives fair market value for the leased lands.

. The BIA violated the Indian Trust Responsibility by failing to insure that the lease was in the best interests of the entire Passamaquoddy Tribe.

The tribal members’ ultimate objective is to reopen the lease decision. They want to provide an opportunity for all tribal members to vote on whether this project is truly in the best interests of the community based on sound environmental and economic information, according to a press release.

The action will not likely affect the developers’ current work, as the lawsuit does not seek an injunction. The spokesman for Quoddy Bay responded to Wednesday’s announcement with a brief statement.

“We monitored the lease approval process closely and are confident that any questioning of that process will find that the BIA and the Pleasant Point tribe followed the appropriate procedure,” Dennis Bailey of Portland said.

“We will continue to move forward with our plans to acquire the necessary permits for the project, which was approved by the Tribal Council in May.”

The lawsuit is being handled by the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic at Vermont Law School, where Parenteau is its director in South Royal.

“We are extremely clear about our actions,” Vera Francis, coordinator of We Protect Our Homeland, said in a prepared statement Wednesday. “We will follow this legal process to its conclusion.

“Our Passamaquoddy people, and all of Maine’s people, can do better than unsustainable projects like LNG. We are entitled to our lands, our waters, and that which sustains us. … LNG in Passamaquoddy Bay is neither about an economic nor energy crisis. It is about a leadership crisis.”

We Protect Our Homeland is affiliated with the larger opposition group, Save Passamaquoddy Bay. Linda Godfrey of Eastport is that group’s coordinator.

“The filing of this legal action was an option from the first days that tribal members were excluded from the process,” Godfrey said Wednesday. “From the onset of the LNG proposal, our colleagues at Pleasant Point have made it clear that they were prepared to defend that which has sustained their people for generations – their entitlement to Passamaquoddy Bay and Passamaquoddy land.”