ISLESBORO — Town officials voted unanimously on Wednesday, March 13 to ask the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to complete a full environmental impact study of the 23 million gallon liquefied propane gas tank proposed for Searsport.

The board will send a letter to the Army Corps seeking the full review, the second time the town requested such a study.

The project, proposed by the Denver, Colo.-based DCP Midstream over a year ago, is now being reviewed by Searsport’s planning board after several weeks of public hearings. The company has secured permits all necessary state and federal permits, including from the Army Corps, but that federal regulatory body did not conduct an environmental impact study.

A press release issued by the Islesboro Islands Trust after the island town board’s vote asserted that domestic demand for liquefied propane has declined recently. The DCP Midstream project is designed to import the gas.

 “There is no need for a new LPG import facility when existing U.S. marine LPG terminals are converting to export, ” said Craig Olson, chairman of the board of selectmen. “For this and other reasons,” he is quoted as saying in the press release, the board asks the Army Corps “to withdraw its earlier environmental assessment and take a hard, fresh look at the proposed LPG marine import project as part of a full environmental impact study analysis.”

If the DCP project converted to an export facility, the Islesboro Islands Trust asserts, would increase risk. The trust quotes a study it commissioned by Good Harbor, and its principal, Richard Clarke, who wrote: “Gas export would completely alter the risks posed by gas development at Searsport” by putting more of the product on roads, rails and ships.

DCP has denied it plans to export the fuel.

Stephen Miller, the trust’s executive director, also is quoted in the release:

“Numerous cost effective and environmentally preferable alternatives to importation of foreign propane already exist or are underway to provide energy sources where needed,” he said, such as expanded and new rail LPG terminals, new LPG storage facilities, expansion of natural gas pipeline service in direct competition with propane, use of renewable solar and biomass, increased use of weatherization and efficiency to reduce energy consumption and development of wind power.

To date, nine other town boards have vote to express concern about the tank proposal: Camden, Rockport, Lincolnville, Belfast, Stockton Springs, Matinicus, North Haven, Montville and Northport.

North Haven joined Islesboro in voting to ask the Searsport planning board to adopt Clarke’s Good Harbor recommendation to deny the permit.