Tribe OKs $1.5M sale of land for LNG project

PLEASANT POINT – Passamaquoddy tribal members gave an Oklahoma liquefied natural gas developer a leg up this week when they approved the sale of a 300-acre parcel of land to Quoddy Bay LNG for $1.5 million.

The deal came to around $5,000 an acre.

The vote Tuesday at the Indian Township reservation near Princeton was 120-54, while the vote on Wednesday at the Pleasant Point reservation was 137-72.

It has been the year of the votes on the reservation.

In February, voters at Indian Township overwhelmingly approved a tax agreement between the Passamaquoddy Tribe and Quoddy Bay.

The developer now has the backing of the full tribe to build an LNG facility at Pleasant Point.

Plans call for Quoddy Bay LNG to build a multimillion-dollar LNG facility at Split Rock on tribal land. An underwater pipe across Half Moon Cove near Route 190 would connect the pier at Pleasant Point with a tank farm in nearby Perry.

The land the tribe agreed to sell is west of the Old Eastport Road off U.S. Route 1.

The decision to put the question before voters was made by the tribe’s Joint Tribal Council. The council is made up of governors, lieutenant governors and tribal councilors from both reservations.

Indian Township Tribal Chief Billy Nicholas said Thursday he advocated putting issues like the sale of land out to the voters. “People wholeheartedly feel that land is an issue that needs to be brought to their attention, especially when it’s for sale,” the chief said.

Indian Township’s share of the $1.5 million will be $750,000, once financing for the project is in place.

Nicholas said a selling point for the deal was the nature of the land. It was neither reservation nor trust land, but fee land. “Trust land is land held in trust for the tribe by the federal government. Reservation is land we’ve always had,” he said. “Fee land is land we bought and pay taxes on to the state. It is not regulated by the tribe; it’s under state rule and it’s under the jurisdiction of the state.”

Pleasant Point Tribal Chief Rick Doyle did not return a telephone call Thursday.

But Fred Moore III, Quoddy Bay Relations director and a Passamaquoddy, said Thursday that the tribe has now endorsed the project by a wide and comfortable margin. “This is the second vote for the Indian Township community in three weeks and the results will not change. It’s a clear indication that the tribe is unified behind the project,” Moore said.

Quoddy Bay deputy project manager Adam Wilson said Thursday of the acquisition: “We offered to buy some property … that the reservation owns. We just need to use it for some lay-down area for construction. That’s essentially all it’s for.”

The company will make an upfront payment. “Essentially, Quoddy Bay’s position is that we are happy that we can help the tribe with an initial deposit of $100,000 right now,” he said.

Wilson said the vote demonstrated support for the project. “Selling land … is not an easy thing for people to accept,” he said. “It’s encouraging for us that the tribe trusts us and understands that we have nothing but good intentions.”

Once the company is done with the project, Wilson said, it plans to return the land to the tribe. “Once we get project financing, we will close on the property, the title will transfer to us, but in the contract we have promised to return the land for $1,” he explained.