Vt. firm hired to supply LNG impact study

EASTPORT – Believers in the Passamaquoddy Bay’s economic engine are putting their money where their mouths are – and they hope that the public and even private developers seeking to position heavy industry on the bay will join them.

They have commissioned a comprehensive study of what the social and economic impacts will be if liquefied natural gas facilities enter the area’s equation.

Positive or negative, the answers and analyses that emerge from the independent report by a Vermont research firm likely will provide more information than the public has been privy to since LNG proposals first surfaced for coastal Washington County 18 months ago.

Members of Save Passamaquoddy Bay, an alliance of area residents opposed to the siting of LNG on the bay, have asked Yellow Wood Associates of St. Albans, Vt., to conduct the $50,000 project – called The Whole Bay Study – over the next four months.

They will brief Gov. John Baldacci on the commissioning of the study as soon as Friday. He has agreed to meet with alliance members who represent Calais, Robbinston, Perry and Pleasant Point – the towns targeted for LNG development – plus Campobello Island.

Baldacci is coming Down East as the keynote speaker for the Sunrise County Economic Development Summit at the University of Maine at Machias on Friday.

“We are pleased that he will meet with our coordinating team,” said Linda Godfrey, the spokeswoman for Save Passamaquoddy Bay. “We will discuss with him the outline of the study, among other things. We will also request his support for some funding from the State Planning Office and the Department for Community and Economic Development” toward the study.

The drive to cover the $50,000 costs of the study is called “The Whole Bay Fund” campaign. In addition to the relevant state offices, the Washington County commissioners, municipalities, individual citizens and even the developers and their investors will all be tapped to contribute.

It is projected as a fair and balanced assessment – not dissimilar to the work that Yellow Wood did in 2004 for the Harpswell area, when LNG developers wanted to put a plant there.

As the first study to address all issues related to the proposed LNG operations, The Whole Bay Study will provide data and details that all parties concerned with economic development will find useful.

“The choice of Yellow Wood Associates comes from a desire to have an independent and thorough study,” Godfrey said.

“This is a monumental study, and a huge investment for our grassroots alliance. We want to have the best information available for all communities and individuals,” she said. “We want data that goes beyond what prospective developers have supplied. We want the hardest and most in-depth questions asked.

“We want a study that can stand up to scrutiny at the local, state, and federal levels,” Godfrey said.

Once complete, the study will be made available to Baldacci, New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord and Passamaquoddy tribal governors Melvin Francis and Robert Newell.

The report will also be made available to both U.S. and Canadian federal legislators and appropriate federal agencies.

Each local government surrounding the bay will receive a copy of the study. Area residents also will have access to the entire study.

Save Passamaquoddy Bay members have adopted three commitments for The Whole Bay Study – to look fully at both costs and benefits of LNG within Washington County; to have an impeccable report; and to share fully with the public whatever data is gathered.

The Canadian side of the bay will also be covered in the report. St. Croix Estuary Project, Inc. of St. Stephen, New Brunswick, will collaborate in the study through data collection and analysis for the Canadian portion.

The process of compiling the study begins with the collection of community baseline data, and reviewing the status of the LNG industry and the proposals that have been made for various sites within the bay.

Using that data as background, researchers will create a generic model of an LNG site on the bay in both qualitative and quantitative terms.

Specific topics will be addressed, such as possible impacts on community infrastructure, public safety, property values, local government budgets, transportation, housing and public investment.

The second step of the process involves an analysis of the impacts of a proposed LNG site on both the real estate sector and different areas of employment. That segment will address the topics of fisheries, tourism, recreation, research and education, public health, economic aspects of environmental actions and community lifestyles.

Yellow Wood Associates was selected for the firm’s approach to projects such as this, in which they use local real data rather than applying templates, simulations or routine models.

More information on the study may be obtained from Save Passamaquoddy Bay’s Web site www.savepassamaquoddybay.org or by calling 853-4123.