Meeting on LNG project set at Perry Elementary

PLEASANT POINT – A meeting to familiarize the public with a liquefied natural gas development project and its anticipated environmental effects has been scheduled for next week.

The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 23, at the Perry Elementary School. No similar meeting is scheduled for the Beatrice Rafferty Elementary School at Pleasant Point.

The company plans to file applications for a site location of development permit, a Natural Resources Protection Act permit, a wastewater discharge permit, a water-quality certification permit and an air-emission license with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, the public notice said.

“These applications will be filed for the purpose of constructing and operating a liquefied natural gas import terminal, LNG storage facility, natural gas pipeline and associated facilities,” the notice added.

Quoddy Bay has proposed building a multimillion-dollar facility at Split Rock on the Passamaquoddy reservation. The firm alsos plan to build an LNG tank farm and re-gassificaiton facility and associated facilities in nearby Perry.

“A 35.8-mile-long, 36-inch diameter natural gas send-out pipeline is to be constructed on property in the towns of Alexander, Charlotte, Cooper, Pembroke and Princeton to deliver natural gas from the LNG import terminal and storage facility to the existing Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline in the town of Princeton,” the notice said.

The project has been controversial since it first was introduced several years ago. The company needs state and federal permits, including one from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, before the facility can be built.

Last month, Passamaquoddy protesters greeted officials from FERC and their engineering consultants when they toured the Pleasant Point site. Opponents carried signs that read, “This Land is Not For Sale” and “Leaders Selling out to Big Business.” The opponents also sang songs in their native Passamaquoddy language.

Staffers from FERC’s Office of Energy Projects were in eastern Washington County in April to get a sense of the layout and equipment placement at the sites of two proposed LNG facilities.

In addition to the proposed Quoddy Bay LNG project, another company, Washington, D.C.-based Downeast LNG, wants to build a similar terminal and tank farm in Robbinston.