BREWER – Some of the details surrounding a natural gas compression station proposed for Brewer were disclosed during an open house Wednesday night conducted by representatives of Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline.

The proposed Brewer station is part of the pipeline consortium’s fourth phase of development in Maine, which calls for the construction of several compression stations and a 31.3-mile loop of pipeline along existing line in Washington County, according to documents distributed during the Brewer information session.

Compression stations boost pressure in a pipeline. Maritimes & Northeast and its Canadian affiliate transport natural gas from Sable Island, off the coast of Nova Scotia, through New Brunswick to energy markets in Atlantic Canada and the northeastern United States. The $3 billion pipeline Maritimes & Northeast built two years ago stretches from Nova Scotia to Boston. More than 200 miles of pipeline were built in Maine.

As shown in an area map on display during the event, pipeline officials are eyeing a roughly 20-acre parcel between the Day and Lambert roads as a possible site for a 15,000-square-foot compression station.

The site is undeveloped, wooded and at least 2,000 feet from the nearest homes, said Tony Most, Maritimes & Northeast’s manager of construction. The bulk of the land would be left untouched, though a small portion would be cleared to accommodate the station and parking. In addition, an access road would have to be built to reach the site.

Besides the Brewer station, others are slated for Eliot and Gorham, which were the subjects of two open houses last week, and Searsmont, which will be the focus of an information session tonight, according to Maritimes & Northeast spokesman Marylee Hanley.

The four proposed stations would bring the total in Maine to six. Maritimes & Northeast, owned by a group of energy companies, already has two compression stations in Maine, one in the Washington County town of Baileyville and the other in Richmond in Sagadahoc County.

Hanley said Maritimes & Northeast officials have met with municipal officials in the four communities and have notified potentially affected abutting property owners. She pointed out, however, that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has the ultimate say over where the compression stations will be located.

Maritimes & Northeast is in the process of finalizing applications for the plants with FERC and plans to submit the necessary documents by the end of this month, Hanley said. Public hearings will be required as part of the application process, though it was too early this week to determine when those hearings would be conducted.

City planner Linda Johns said the project also will need to come before the planning board for site plan approval.

Barring any unforeseen snags, construction here could begin in the spring of 2003. Pipeline officials said they hope to have the facility operational by July 1, 2004.

Though not a big generator of jobs, the proposed compression plants would add significantly to the tax bases of the municipalities where they are built. For example, if the Brewer station is valued between $25 million and $35 million, as some project officials have suggested to city staff, it would yield between $610,000 and $830,000 in new property tax revenue annually, Economic Development Director Drew Sachs said in an interview this fall.

Eastern Maine Development Corp. President David Cole, as head of an organization serving several counties, took a broader view. The EMDC is studying the implications of this region’s new access to natural gas, which until recently was available only in southern Maine, he said. The idea is to work to attract businesses and industries seeking sites handy to the pipeline, which already is serving paper mills and other facilities in Maine.

“I don’t see where anything but good can come of it,” Cole said.

So far, the planned compression station has not been the subject of complaints or concerns in Brewer, though pipeline officials have fielded questions.

“Working with Maritimes has been extraordinarily easy,” Sachs said Wednesday. “They’ve done their homework and they’re clearly community-minded,” the latter observation referring to the consortium’s willingness to build the plant well away from existing homes, even though that will mean having to build a longer and more expensive access road.

Sachs added that the consortium involved the city and potentially affected landowners and abutters early in the planning process. It already has negotiated purchase options with the owners of the land making up the 18- to 20-acre site.

During the open house, an informal event at Pendleton Street School, at least eight pipeline officials from various divisions were on hand to answer questions about the project. They brought with them photographs of facilities like the one proposed here in various stages of construction, maps, brochures and other documents for city officials and residents to consider. All official documentation associated with the project is required by FERC to be placed in the city’s library for public access.

Numerous city officials attended, including City Manager Stephen Bost, most department heads and most members of the City Council.