Economy vs. environment focus of LNG forum testimony

ROBBINSTON – Most of the people who spoke at a public hearing Tuesday night about a proposed local liquefied natural gas terminal voiced support for the project, but about a third of participants were vocal in their dissent.

Approximately 150 people sat in the gymnasium of the local grade school Tuesday night as the state Board of Environmental Protection heard testimony about Downeast LNG’s terminal proposal for the local village of Mill Cove.

The board’s scope in reviewing the proposal is to determine whether the project would be consistent with the state’s environmental laws, but many people who want Downeast LNG to build the facility said their main concern is not whether the terminal would be compatible with its natural surroundings.

“I haven’t seen the environment degrade too much around here, except economically,” Dean Ingham told the 10-member panel, which sat at a long, white table set up at one end of the gym below a basketball hoop. “People have cut down trees [in Washington County], and they all grow back faster than you can cut them down.”

James Morrell, one of about a dozen people at the hearing sporting Downeast LNG T-shirts, echoed the same concern.

“We have to feed ourselves and we have to feed our children,” Morrell said. “We want to do something for ourselves. We want to co-exist with the kayakers.”

Others, however, said the type of development proposed would not be good for Passamaquoddy Bay. The project, which would involve a pier several thousand feet long jutting out into the bay and two large storage tanks onshore, would pose a safety hazard and would be inconsistent with the natural scenic beauty of the area, some said.

“The Downeast LNG project would tear down, literally and figuratively, everything we’ve struggled so hard to achieve,” Perry resident Nancy Asante said.

Alan Furth of Trescott said he also is in favor of creating jobs in the area. Only he wants jobs that can support a sustainable economy.

“It simply does not fit here,” he said. “I feel like this is the wrong industry for our region. I am very much for jobs.”

Members of the board asked few questions during the testimony. Some of the questions were in response to issues raised by Whiting resident Fred Hartman, who used to work for the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

Hartman told the board that the development could have an adverse impact on seabirds.

“Mill Cove is a very important area for ducks, especially black ducks,” he said. “Waterfowl will be the most detrimentally affected by the project at Mill Cove.”

Hartman told BEP board member Ernest Hilton of Starks that he has seen black ducks at Mill Cove each winter for the past several years. When asked by BEP board member Wing Goodale of Falmouth what other birds he has seen at Mill Cove, Hartman said Maine state game wardens would know better than he did.

Some who support the terminal suggested that other types of industrial development would be bad for Robbinston and other municipalities surrounding Passamaquoddy Bay. And some suggested that Canadian opposition to the proposal was based upon protectionist views of energy developments north of the border.

Some people, even those in favor of the proposal, said lighting of the pier at night could be an issue, but everyone who spoke in favor of it discounted the notion that the LNG terminal would have an adverse environmental impact on the area.

“I believe we can co-exist,” Cathy Footer of Robbinston told the board. “It’s an industry, but it’s not heavy industry.”

The hearing Tuesday evening lasted less than three hours.

The board has been conducting hearings here during the day since Monday with panels of expert witnesses and with project intervenors, or legally recognized proponents and opponents of the LNG project. Those hearings will continue at least through Thursday, with another hearing for public testimony on the proposal scheduled at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Calais High School.