Tribal officials lay out plans for Calais LNG site

CALAIS – It could become the first and only tribally owned liquefied natural gas facility in the country, and the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Indian Township hopes that this city will be its partner.

At a joint meeting of the Calais City Council and planning board last week, Calais LNG and its business partner – Cianbro Corp. -unveiled plans to build a multimillion-dollar LNG terminal.

Plans call for the terminal to be built on the St. Croix River between Devil’s Head and St. Croix Island on Route 1 in the Red Beach area of Calais.

Two competing LNG projects already are vying for federal approval.

Oklahoma-based Quoddy Bay LLC, working with the Passamaquoddy Tribe’s sister reservation at Pleasant Point, has proposed building an LNG facility at Split Rock, near Eastport. They were the first to announce their plans.

The second developer, the Washington, D.C.-based Downeast LNG, hopes to build a similar venture in Robbinston, between Calais and Perry.

The Calais LNG project calls for a pier to be built in the St. Croix River, across from an active gravel pit and the Canadian shipping port at Bayside, New Brunswick.

Plans call for natural gas that has been cooled to its liquid state at minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit to be brought in from foreign countries by huge tankers and unloaded into storage tanks.

During last week’s meeting, developer and tribal state representative Fred Moore and Indian Township tribal Councilor Liz Neptune talked about what distinguishes the Calais LNG project from the other two.

“The Calais LNG project will be a tribally owned effort. The other two projects that have been mentioned will be run by private companies,” Neptune said. “We’re not outsiders coming into a place that we know nothing about. … The Passamaquoddy people have walked along these lands for over 12,000 years; we haven’t gone anywhere, and we don’t plan to go anywhere.”

Calais LNG also hopes to make Calais a part of the planning process. During its first few months in Washington County, the Quoddy Bay LLC project was soundly criticized for its lack of transparency because much of the discussion about the project happened behind closed doors at Pleasant Point.

Moore promised that would not happen in Calais. “We feel we have an obligation to be as open with you as we possibly can, and as transparent and inclusive about our efforts,” Moore said.

Neptune said tribal officials at Indian Township had selected Calais because the city has long supported the economic development efforts of the tribe, and this was the tribe’s way of giving back to the community. At one time the tribe and city hoped to build a casino in Calais, but state officials killed the proposal in Augusta.

During the discussion Thursday night, Cianbro spokesman Geoff Thomas said Calais LNG plans call for construction of a 1,700-foot jetty that would stretch out into the river to a depth of 45 feet to accommodate the large tankers that would travel weekly into and out of the port.

The natural gas would be piped along the jetty to two large storage tanks. Thomas said the developers planned to make the tanks as inconspicuous as possible by using trees as buffers.

From there the gas would be sent through underground pipes to Baileyville, where it would connect with the Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline. Ultimately, the natural gas would be sent to markets as far away as Boston.

Moore and Thomas were questioned about Canada’s say over the project. Since the topic was first introduced two years ago by other developers, Canadian officials have maintained that they have a right to block passage of ships into their sovereign waters.

As proposed, the ships would have to navigate Head Harbour Passage near Campobello Island, New Brunswick, before reaching port in Maine.

But Moore and Cianbro representatives said they believed that U.S. ships have the right to enter Canadian waters because of agreements with the country that allow their ships to enter U.S. waters.

Federal lawyers in the United States and Canada are busy interpreting the terms “innocent passage” and “friendly traffic” and other relevant legislation on maritime laws.

Moore suggested that discussions about water rights of way were better left to officials in Washington, D.C., and Ottawa.