The Saint Croix Courier

2006 January 31

A matter of distance

In her January 27 Courier article about opposition to LNG in Passamaquoddy Bay, writer Kathy Bockus inadvertently repeats a misconception that has been deliberately circulated by Dean [Girdis] of the firm that calls itself Downeast LNG. Ms. Bockus reported that Downeast LNG's proposed location is "about three miles across the Passamaquoddy Bay from St. Andrews."

The federal fisheries research station on the St. Croix River at Brandy Cove (which we refer to locally as "the biological station") is not in the centre of St. Andrews, but it is definitely in St. Andrews, and a vitally important part of our community.

Downeast LNG's proposed Robbinston location at Mill Cove across the St. Croix River is about a mile and a quarter from the Brandy Cove fisheries research station in St. Andrews. Downeast LNG proposes to build a loading dock for LNG tankers that would extend nearly a half-mile into the river — quite close to the international border at mid-river.

Rather than being "about three miles from St. Andrews," Downeast LNG's proposed facility would actually be less than three quarters of a mile from St. Andrews.

And LNG tankers approaching and leaving a Mill Cove terminal would have to pass even closer to St. Andrews and our biological station, certainly passing within less than a half mile of the station. Bearing in mind that these ships can themselves be almost a quarter mile in length, the reality of the scenario that Mr. [Girdis] doesn't want people to think about is that if his carelessly sited terminal were for some reason permitted at Mill Cove, every week several of the largest and most dangerous ships in the world would be maneuvering just a few hundred yards from Canada's premier fisheries research facility — in Canadian waters and considerably closer to St. Andrews than to the Maine shore.

We need to call Mr. [Girdis] on his dishonest effort to minimize the impact his reckless and ill-conceived "development" proposal would have on St. Andrews. [Girdis] is a disinformation specialist. His frequent assertion that his proposed terminal would be "about" or "more than" three miles from St. Andrews is propaganda, and one of the most effective techniques used in propaganda campaigns is repeating lies frequently, in the hope that eventually some people will mistake them for the truth.

Larry Lack
St. Andrews