Court appoints Maine lawyer special master in LNG dispute

DOVER, Del. – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday granted a request by Delaware to appoint a special master in a border dispute case with New Jersey.

The dispute involves New Jersey’s effort to help energy giant BP build a liquefied natural gas plant on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River.

The high court appointed attorney Ralph Lancaster Jr. of Portland, Maine, as special master in the case, granting him broad authority to summon witnesses, issue subpoenas and gather any evidence he deems necessary.

Lancaster, a Harvard-educated lawyer, has served as special master to the Supreme Court twice before. The first case involved a dispute between New Jersey and Nevada in the late 1980s over the disposal of hazardous waste. The second involved a more recent fight between Virginia and Maryland over Virginia’s attempt to place a water pipeline in the Potomac River.

Lancaster said he has not been following the Delaware case and did not offer any timeline for how the case might unfold.

“All I know is that I have been appointed,” he said in a brief telephone interview.

Delaware officials had no immediate comment on the court’s decision.

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed in November to grant New Jersey’s request to decide the dispute with Delaware.

Delaware environmental officials last year rejected BP subsidiary Crown Landing LLC’s application to build a 2,000-foot pier that would serve a liquefied natural gas facility proposed for Logan Township, N.J.

Delaware officials contend that the project represents an offshore bulk product transfer facility and heavy industry, both of which are prohibited under Delaware’s coastal zone protection laws.

Under boundary determinations that date to the 17th century, Delaware controls the river up to the mean low-tide mark on the New Jersey shore.

But New Jersey claims that a 1905 interstate compact gives it the right to control riparian access and structures on its side of the river, even if they extend across the border.