Eastport outlines LNG site concerns

EASTPORT – Washington County’s largest coastal city Tuesday told the governor it has serious concerns over safety and security risks surrounding a proposed LNG facility at Pleasant Point.

The city has filed for intervenor status with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, notified the state it plans to participate in the state permitting process and sent letters to Gov. John Baldacci and Maine’s U.S. congressional delegation outlining its concerns.

Quoddy Bay LNG plans to build a liquefied natural gas terminal at neighboring Split Rock at Pleasant Point. The plan calls for an underground cryogenic pipe to cross under Route 190 – the only road into and out of Eastport. The pipeline would travel under Half Moon Cove to Perry where the company plans to build its tank farm.

Right now three companies are looking to build LNG facilities Down East. In addition to Quoddy Bay, the Washington D.C.-based Downeast LNG plans to build a facility in Robbinston, while another group hopes to build a terminal and tank farm in Calais, although it appears they have not yet begun the formal permitting process.

In its letter to the governor, Earl Small, president of the City Council said the city was not opposed to LNG or the efforts of Quoddy Bay’s competitor, Downeast LNG to build a facility in Robbinston.

“However, we do have very strong concerns that the Quoddy Bay LNG project poses safety and security risks for the people of Eastport and, therefore, unless clear and compelling assurances protecting the health, welfare and vitality of the community can be provided, [we] do oppose this project,” Small wrote.

If Route 190 were closed for whatever reason, Small said, it would disrupt life in Eastport. “As examples, Route 190 would potentially be closed as part of an exclusion zone during off-loading, or during repairs to the cryogenic line, or in the event of a leak or explosion,” the chairman said. “Just imagine the disruption to daily life without road access – Eastport would effectively be shut off from the mainland.”

Quoddy Bay project manager Brian Smith admitted Tuesday that working with Eastport has been a challenge because city officials won’t allow their fire and police chiefs to attend workshops dealing with LNG safety issues. “We have been trying to get the city of Eastport to participate for the last eight months in our emergency response plan process and they fail to do so for whatever reason,” Smith said.

Smith also addressed his concerns in a letter to the city dated May 11 in which he noted that although the police and fire chiefs wanted to participate “you are not allowing their participation in this important process.”

City Manager George “Bud” Finch disagreed.

“In terms of safety we have never instructed our respective police and fire chiefs to not participate in the process of ensuring the health and welfare of the city nor would we ever. We have instructed them to participate only at a level they feel duly qualified to serve and as they feel their schedules permit and they have done that,” Finch said Tuesday.

Noting that the FERC process was complex, Finch said the ability for small communities to participate was limited when it came to public safety. “While our dear friends and respective police and fire chiefs of Perry, Pleasant Point and [the] head of [the] Washington County Emergency Management Planning may feel qualified to prepare an emergency plan dealing with an LNG incident,” he said, “the city staff does not feel qualified to do so. It is not a matter of buying a fire engine, it is a matter of ensuring citizen well-being and when a process is brought forward with independent experts in the field, the city will work with them to consider how our needs can be met.”

But Smith defended the local fire departments and said that part of the emergency response planning process was increased training for them. “None of the first responders will fight fires at the facility,” he said. “Say, for example, one of the tanks in Perry failed, and there was a fire, there is a possibility that some of that fire could reach the forest in the nearby area, so fighting forest fires is in the capabilities of the Perry Fire Department, or at least it will be after we provide all the training necessary in order to fight a forest fire that could spread into the city.”