ELLSWORTH – U.S. Coast Guard officials, with help from state agencies and other interested parties, started work Wednesday on weighing the safety and security concerns posed by two proposed liquefied natural gas terminals on Passamaquoddy Bay.

Approximately 30 people gathered Wednesday morning in a meeting room at the local Holiday Inn as the Coast Guard initiated its federally mandated review of the Downeast LNG and Quoddy Bay LLC proposals. Coast Guard officials at the meeting said 60 people had been invited to attend.

Many of the specifics of what the Coast Guard’s working group discussed at Wednesday’s meeting, however, cannot be disclosed publicly because participants have been required to sign legally binding nondisclosure agreements. This reporter, who did not sign the agreement, left the meeting when USCG officials determined the subject matter being discussed was getting close to topics that are considered to be security-sensitive or proprietary to the companies that have submitted the terminal proposals.

U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Stephen Garrity said the purpose of the nondisclosure agreements is not to exclude members of the public from the process. He said the Coast Guard findings and resulting written recommendations will be part of the public record and will be available to the general public when they have been submitted to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The Coast Guard’s review of the two proposals likely will take a year to complete, he said.

Garrity said the Coast Guard will enforce the legally binding agreements so that proprietary information and specific security concerns are not disseminated to the general public.

“We mean it,” he told the group. “We will hold you to it.”

Before Coast Guard officials decided the subject matter being discussed at Wednesday’s meeting was too sensitive for press coverage, however, they talked about the review process.

Garrity said the Coast Guard intends to gather information from state, Washington County and municipal officials, local marine pilots, and Canadian officials before it decides what kind of recommendations it will make on the projects. He said the purpose of the group is not to serve as an advocacy or opposition forum but to review factual information.

“There are gaps in what we know,” he said. “That’s why we’ve assembled this group of people.”

Gerald Morrision, a pilot who guides ships in and out of Passamaquoddy Bay, talked about the routes LNG tankers would take through Canadian waters to get to the proposed terminal sites.

All cargo ships traveling between the Bay of Fundy and Passamaquoddy Bay have to navigate Head Harbor Passage, which separates Deer and Campobello islands in New Brunswick, he said. About half the ships that come and go from Eastport travel through Grand Manan Channel, which separates Maine from Grand Manan Island in Canada, he said.

Other people at the meeting included officials with state police, marine patrol, Department of Environmental Protection, State Planning Office, Maine Maritime Academy, the state ferry service, Maine Sea Grant, Save Passamaquoddy Bay, the Passamaquoddy tribe and private marine pilot organizations.

Washington, D.C.-based Downeast LNG has submitted a proposal to federal regulators to construct an LNG marine terminal and storage facility at Mill Cove in Robbinston. The terminal would have a maximum daily capacity of 500 million cubic feet of natural gas, which on Wednesday was trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange for $6.73 per thousand cubic feet.

Quoddy Bay LLC, based in Oklahoma City, has proposed to build its Quoddy LNG terminal near Eastport on Passamaquoddy tribal land at Split Rock and an associated three-tank storage facility nearby in Perry. Quoddy Bay’s facility would have a maximum daily capacity of 2 billion cubic feet.