ROCKLAND — Pending U.S. Coast Guard safety regulations could prevent propane gas dealers from making island deliveries on scheduled ferry runs.

Under the new regulations, all shipments of bottled, pressurized gases, such as propane or acetylene, can no longer be carried on ferryboats that also have passengers on board.

Maine State Ferry Service Director Walter Wotton said Friday that although he had yet to receive written confirmation of the regulations, Coast Guard officials in Portland had already warned him orally that they would be forthcoming. The changes went into effect Oct. 1, Wotton said.

Once he receives notification of the new rules in writing, Wotton said, he will have no choice but to ban fuel shipments from scheduled runs. He said a gas delivery would require fuel dealers to hire the ferry for a special trip. Special trips carry a price tag of $550.

At present there are no restrictions on shipments of bottled gases on the state ferries. State ferries carry bottled gas to Swans Island, Frenchboro, Islesboro, Vinalhaven, North Haven and Matinicus. For many islanders, bottled gas is their sole fuel source.

“A lot of people, that’s all they use,” North Haven gas dealer Rex Crockett said Friday. “I don’t know what will happen if these rules go through. I don’t know what I will do.”

Crockett said he sells more than 1,000 cylinders of bottled propane during the course of the year. While most is used for cooking purposes, Crockett said, some of his customers use gas for heat and to power generators.

“There’s a lot of summer cottages that use nothing but gas,” Crockett said. “People on Dogfish and Leadbetter Islands, that’s all they use.”

Crockett said his supplier ships the 100-pound cylinders in lots of 88 bottles per truckload. Today, that shipment costs the supplier the price of a ferry ticket which, depending on the size of the truck, generally runs about $50. Once the new edict goes into effect, the charge will increase to $550, or about $6.25 per tank.

“If it gets to a special trip I’ll probably have to give it up. You couldn’t afford a tank of gas, anyway,” Crockett said.

Wotton noted that bulk shipments of gasoline already require special trips. Besides the added cost to propane users, Wotton said he was also concerned with whether the regulations applied to 20-pound propane tanks carried on campers and recreational vehicles. A number of retired islanders travel to Florida in those types of vehicles during the winter.

Wotton said the Coast Guard has been beefing up its safety regulations since the 11 million-gallon oil spill that occurred when the Exxon Valdez went aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska.

“They just started to clamp down and tighten up after that. I think it’s just a general tightening of loose ends,” Wotton said. “We’re having to do things on boats that we never had to do before. No matter how small, you check through to the fullest. You don’t overlook anything.”

He said the safety regulations on the ferry service’s newer vessels — the Capt. Henry Lee, Capt. Charles Philbrook, Capt. Neil Burgess and Margaret Chase Smith — are much more restrictive than other boats in the fleet, such as the Gov. Curtis, which was built in 1969, and the 1959-era Everett Libby.

“It was a simpler way of living then, but it’s a lot different today,” Wotton said. “They are starting to hold everybody accountable for anything that goes wrong. And it’s not just about what you carry. Everybody is more safety-conscious these days. You’ll start seeing captains getting a little more conservative, especially in rough weather.”