Impact studies urged for LNG sites

New England may need to expand its natural gas supply, but the area’s largest regional environmental advocacy group says doing so raises “significant public safety and marine and coastal environmental issues.”

The Brunswick-based Conservation Law Foundation is calling for a regional approach for siting of a liquefied natural gas facility based on the potential merits and environmental impacts of adding one or more additional LNG import facilities to the regional energy infrastructure.

CLF’s senior attorney Roger Fleming presented his remarks last week before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s scoping meeting for the Oklahoma-based Quoddy Bay LNG proposal.

Last year, the developer entered into an agreement with the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point to build a two-berth facility that can handle up to 90 ships a year at Split Rock, near Route 190.

Fleming suggested there be a two-pronged approach to the FERC analysis: first, that an energy and gas supply and demand needs assessment be conducted. “This assessment should serve as a key determinant in decision-making and in explaining regional need to affected local communities,” he said.

Second, he suggested a regional siting approach was needed to determine the specific sites for an LNG import facility “based upon rigorously developed criteria that address both public safety and environmental protection.”

To date, there are more than 10 proposals for onshore LNG terminals and offshore deep water ports in the Northeast and Maritime Canada. “Only one or two of these projects are needed to meet the region’s energy needs, according to former FERC Chairman Pat Wood III,” Fleming said in his prepared remarks. “Already, two facilities have been approved in Maritime Canada, one of which is currently under construction in Saint John [New Brunswick] and one facility has been approved in Fall River, Mass.”

Currently three applicants are advancing through the regulatory system for deep-water ports off the coast of Massachusetts and Long Island Sound. “All proposed project sites to date have been advanced on a community-by-community basis and are not based on a coherent strategy for evaluating the overall need for additional LNG import capacity or on rigorously defined criteria for identifying what may be the ‘best’ potential LNG terminal or deep-water port sites. This ad hoc approach has not been efficient or effective and does not provide an adequate basis for decision-making about individual proposals,” Fleming added.

The senior attorney also suggested that FERC work with other federal agencies to prepare a regional Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement. The failure to undertake such a review, Fleming suggested, was the reason the Fall River LNG project was currently facing legal challenge.

Another concern raised by CLF is the impact the facility would have on coastal and marine environment. He suggested the project be subjected to a rigorous environmental review.

And people who live in Washington County and neighboring Charlotte County, New Brunswick, also should be considered, Fleming added. “FERC must consider the impacts of this industrial-scale development on the communities and individual residents who live in the rural and relatively pristine areas that make up Pleasant Point, Perry and Campobello and Deer islands [in New Brunswick].”

CFL also suggested FERC look at safety issues associated with both the import and storage of LNG and the impact from noise during facility operation, impact to air quality, impact to cultural resources, and impact on the scenic and wild character of the area.

“The safety concerns must be related to the Sandia National Laboratories report on safety over water environments which showed that people and facilities within one mile of the tanker at its terminal dock are at risk of exposure to fires resulting from accident or attack. Within this one mile zone, mitigation and protection issues must be presented fully,” Fleming said.

Quoddy Bay plans to build a 35-mile onshore pipeline, much of which passes through the Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge is home to nesting eagles and other birds and animals. “FERC must consider the impacts from constructing this pipeline to wetlands and other important habitat, and the resulting ecological impacts to wildlife including threatened and endangered species in both the refuge and surrounding areas,” Fleming said.