The Eastport City Council on July 20 authorized Council President Brian Schuth to send a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) rescinding a controversial letter that had been sent to FERC on July 6.

The July 6 letter dealt with a proposed LNG facility by Downeast LNG in Robbinston and was sent by Schuth.

The council’s decision was made during a workshop session, and it will be ratified at the Council’s official meeting August 10. Schuth said that the Council will file a new commentary on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), but he did not set a timeline.

The controversy over the July 6 letter centered on two points: Schuth’s lack of consultation with council members and his calling into question the integrity of Eastport’s two harbor pilots. The 24-page letter was a response to the FERC’s draft EIS.

After a paragraph of explanation to FERC, the letter states that Eastport does not take position on the LNG project. The letter goes on to raise a number of concerns, however.

One of these concerns is stated as follows: “Eastport asserts that the determination of whether the close proximity of LNG vessel traffic presents a clear and present safety risk to Eastport’s citizens and visitors should be done objectively, with an independent assessment and verification of the waterway’s suitability for LNG vessel traffic. Such an independent assessment will complement the input of key stakeholders who will benefit economically from the presence of increased large draft vessel traffic, namely the local pilots, who will literally be ‘driving the boat’ through key legs of the LNG vessel transit route.”

The letter continued: “To be sure, the USCG’s WSR [U.S. Coast Guard Waterway Suitability Report] included input of many other stakeholders … in its determination of waterway suitability and conclusion that the risk of allision, collision or grounding and cargo release was ‘remote’. But the fact that included in those stakeholders were local pilots, who, because of their financial interest in seeing an increased large draft vessel traffic in the bay, have a clear and inherent economic conflict of interest. This conflict of interest casts aspersion on their ability to render a true independent and objective assessment of the waterway’s suitability as a safe and secure LNG vessel transit route.”

At a meeting of the City Council on July 13, pilot Gerry Morrison called Schuth’s statement, “a slap in the face,” and added, “I would never put money before safety. This was pretty low.” Morrison also said that he had contacted several council members, and “Nobody knew what was going on.”

Pilot Bob Peacock told the Council that he was “appalled” by the statement. He then presented council members books that he had prepared which included his master’s licenses, specific training for LNG vessels, a list of ships that he has brought into Eastport, and diagrams of the vessel hulls that Downeast LNG proposes to transit through Passamaquoddy Bay.

“I’ve piloted ships that are bigger,” Peacock said, and added that the draft of the proposed LNG vessels would be less than vessels currently entering the Bay. Peacock pointed out that he had piloted the UST Atlantic, 1,198 feet long with a 75-foot draft and the Acadia Forest, 857 feet long with a 40.5-foot draft. He then cited two LNG class vessels, one 840 feet long with a 34.5-foot draft and another 957 feet long with a 38.7-foot draft. He added that he has no problem with a third-party review. “We’ve actually had one, but we’d be more than willing to have another one.”
Schuth apologized to Morrison and Peacock saying, “I have the utmost respect for your work.” He added that his raising the conflict of interest issue and the need for a third-party review “was not intended to denigrate your work.” He also said that he would file a correction with FERC.

Peacock responded, “I accept your apology,” and he added that he would have been more than willing to help craft the letter had he been asked,” and proposed that the pilots and the council work together in the future.

In speaking about other points in Schuth’s letter, however, Peacock said, “The city has every right to be concerned about costs.” The letter raised some “good issues, but not all of them were thought through,” Peacock said.

Schuth also apologized to Council members for not consulting them by saying that he was under tremendous pressure to submit the letter by FERC’s July 6 deadline.

Bob Godfrey, researcher and webmaster for the anti-LNG organization Save Passamaquoddy Bay, said of the letter: “Without taking a position for or against the project, the city government fulfilled its elected obligation by focusing on protecting the population, community, and quality of place.”

In a related development, New Brunswick Premier Shawn Graham also filed a statement with FERC on July 6. In it stated, “This [FERC EIS] report indicates that our environment would be negatively affected, our tourism and environmental-based economy would suffer, and the safety and security of the region could be compromised by this proposal.”

He added, “We’ve engaged all government departments for a comprehensive review of those concerns whether they be public safety, or if we have the resources in place if there is an accident on the Canadian side of the border.”

Downeast President Dean Girdis called Graham’s statement “purely political” and “hypocritical, with little factual evidence to back any of it up.”
On June 26, the first LNG tanker arrived at the new facility at the Port of Saint John, New Brunswick.

In a letter to residents Saint John Mayor Ivan Court wrote: “Please be assured that the City of Saint John, the Saint John Fire Department, Saint John Police Force and member agencies of Saint John EMO are very committed to your safety and security.  I trust that our work, the work of Transport Canada, the Province of New Brunswick and Atlantic Pilotage Authority will meet the needs of our citizens, in the event of an emergency. The ship has been allowed to dock at Canaport LNG only because the facility has satisfied 24 conditions to operate as set out in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process.”

Meanwhile, the Passamaquoddy Tribal Council at Sipayik voted on June 7 to terminate its agreement with Quoddy Bay LNG. Calls to Donald Smith, President of Quoddy Bay were routed to Smithco Generating in Oklahoma. Smith did not return phone calls.

Tribal Councilor Ed Bassett said that the tribe’s lease agreement with Quoddy Bay established certain milestones to be met. “The milestones were not met, and so the Council instructed the [tribal] Governor to inform Quoddy Bay that the agreement was terminated.”

The agreement had called for Quoddy Bay to construct and LNG facility at Split Rock on the reservation.