Gas terminal plans worry neighbors

loading...

PLEASANT POINT – A plan to create “one of the largest LNG terminals in North America” has people Down East concerned.

The developers, the Oklahoma-based Quoddy Bay LLC, at first talked about a pier and storage tanks, and now is talking about a two-berth pier, three storage tanks and two regasification systems.

The company also said at one time that it was seeking partners such as Exxon-Mobil, but in December told an industry journal that it was in negotiations with a company in Trinidad and Tobago as well as the Trinidad government.

Over the past three years, the proposed plan has had more twists and turns than Route 190 that passes near the site.

In 2004, the company entered into an exclusivity agreement with the Passamaquoddy Tribe to build a facility at Gleason’s Cove in Perry. That plan sank after Perry residents said no.

Then the company said it would build a terminal at Split Rock with an 8-mile underwater pipe connecting to storage tanks in Robbinston. That plan floated away.

Now the company wants to have a pipeline connect to three storage tanks in Perry and another line that would pipe regasified LNG to the Maritimes & Northeast pipeline that connects near Route 9 and sends natural gas to Boston.

In May 2005, a ground lease was signed between the Passamaquoddy Tribe and company President Don Smith. Smith’s son Brian is the project manager.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs approved the contract within a few weeks.

Although the company’s Web site mentions that the plan now consists of a pier with two berths, regasification equipment and three onshore storage facilities, it does not mention any agreements with foreign companies or countries.

That’s because there are none, Brian Smith said Tuesday.

Smith said there were talks with Trinidad, but not with any foreign company. “The goal in Trinidad is to give them an opportunity to supply natural gas to this facility. Trinidad as a government and as a country does not want to be treated as a Third World country and get paid only for their gas supply, but wants to take part in downstream investments,” Brian Smith said.

Pleasant Point Gov. Mark Altvater, who was appointed governor after Gov. Melvin Francis was killed in an automobile accident earlier this year, said he was aware of the two regasification facilities and of Smith’s discussions with Trinidad, but added that as the land lease holders the tribe was not involved in any of the discussions. “I knew he was doing some deal with Trinidad. We are just leasing him the land. It’s his business,” he said.

Tribal attorney Craig Francis agreed. “The tribe hasn’t been as actively involved in this as a landlord because they did what they had to do with getting bureau [of Indian Affairs] approval,” Francis said.

Francis said he believed the redesign could lead to ships being in port longer. “What [Don Smith] is thinking about now is two ships docked at the end of a pier seven days a week, 24 hours a day,” he said.

Brian Smith said plans called for two berths, but only one ship at a time.

The normal mode, he said, would be to unload to the storage tanks. “But should we need to shut down the storage facility because of repair or maintenance or anything like that, we can unload directly from the ships into vaporizers on the pier and we can be noninterruptible,” he added. “With one ship directly replacing another … you need two berths; not so two ships can be in port. The case is that one ship can come in and directly replace another so we are not interrupted.”

Bigger also means more money for the tribe, Francis said. “The lease agreement basically has a scale. If nothing is going through the pipeline, it’s $2.6 [million] or $2.7 million [a year],” the attorney said. “So if that thing shuts down because there is a revolution in Trinidad or Tobago, we get $2.6 [million] or $2.7 million bucks. For the maximum of 2 million cubic feet, I think it’s around $12 million.”

But tribal Councilor Hilda Lewis, who has opposed the project from the beginning, said she was upset about these latest developments. “From the very beginning, this is why I was against the lease agreement because I knew the minute he would get his approval, [Don Smith] would sell it, and he would take advantage of the tribe,” she said.

In the lease agreement, Lewis said, were references to expansion. “As far as I know, it was never said in public,” she said.

Tribal member and opponent David Moses Bridges said he believed Smith had put the “horse before the cart,” that the project was not a done deal.

Last week the company held meetings in Perry and Charlotte. Brian Smith said the changes were discussed. “We discussed two berths,” he said. “It was in all the diagrams we distributed. Part of my presentation was discussion about reliability of the facility, and part of that reliability depends on a noninterruptible potential even when the storage facility is not being used.”

But Perry Selectman Jeanne Guisinger, who attended the Perry meeting last week, said she did not hear about changes to the scope of the project or about any foreign investment.

“I didn’t hear any talk of any changes at all,” she said. “They said Quoddy Bay LLC would be our neighbor. They worded it in such a way that we were dealing with them and they were the owner, and therefore, as a good neighbor, they would take care of us,” Guisinger said.

Guisinger, who said she had an opportunity to read the industry article, said she feared that Smith’s plan would lead to the complete industrialization of Passamaquoddy Bay.

Carol Pollock of Alexander, who attended last week’s meeting in Charlotte where the pipeline route was discussed, said she did not recall discussion of foreign money being a part of the project. “I am sure that I would have remembered that,” she said.

Eastport City Manager George “Bud” Finch called Smith’s latest proposal “absurd.” He said Smith has not discussed these latest developments with him, even though neighboring Eastport would be affected. “I still believe, when all is said and done, LNG will not be located in Passamaquoddy Bay,” he said. “The proposal being discussed at this point in time only makes the Split Rock decision to locate there more absurd than the original proposal.”

Finch said foreign investment was another issue. “If you’re going to have such a facility, who do you want managing it?” he asked of the Trinidad connection.

Another group, Save Passamaquoddy Bay, also has expressed concern about these latest developments.

“The public concern for the secrecy that has surrounded this project should be on full alert as information about trying to sell this project to a foreign country has been brought to light,” said opponent Linda Godfrey of Save Passamaquoddy Bay. “Nothing the Smiths do is surprising. I think they will go to any length, and this shows they will go to any part to fulfill their own personal desire for money from this project. This should have been an announcement that was made locally and would be discussed locally. This only makes us wonder what else are they up to.”

Smith said there would be more meetings, and people were welcome at the company’s office on Route 190. He said he has scheduled a meeting with the Eastport City Council in March.