I feel this is appropriate to pass along to the fleet, so we are informed of this project, it has fallen out of the news quite a bit over the last year, much to the pleasure of the Hess LNG developers. I hope everyone who reads this article will pass it along, spread the word, and try to make contact with anyone and everyone they know to help put an end this idea, which would certainly be the imminent death of sailing on our bay.
LNG tanker security issues kept secret by Coast Guard
3:28 PM Tue, Aug 04, 2009 |
C. Eugene Emery Jr.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - The public apparently isn’t supposed to know how the Coast Guard hopes to thwart a potential terrorist assault on a liquefied natural gas tanker traveling to Mt. Hope Bay or how it will
keep other boats away from the supertankers as they travel through Narragansett Bay.
Key portions of last week’s Coast Guard letter recommending that the insulated vessels, loaded with the high-volatile fuel, be allowed to travel to an offloading terminal in the middle of Mt. Hope Bay have
been removed.
The letter says the information, including a section dealing with the need to close the Pell Bridge in Newport and the Mt. Hope Bridge between Bristol and Portsmouth during tanker trips, was deleted because it involves sensitive security issues.
The recommendation by Raymond J. Perry, captain of the port in Southeastern New England, removes a major stumbling block for the plan by Weaver’s Cove Energy to bring the tankers to a berth in the center
of Mt. Hope Bay.
An earlier plan, to send the ships up Mt. Hope Bay and along the Taunton River, was ruled impractical by the Coast Guard.
Rep. Raymond E. Gallison, Jr., D-Bristol, said Tuesday he was surprised and concerned that so much of Perry’s report, dealing with key issues, has been redacted.
Gallison said he hopes the information will be made public when the proposal goes before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which must approve the project.
FERC had endorsed the initial proposal by Weaver’s Cove, the one ruled impractical by the Coast Guard because the tankers would have had to make too many hairpin turns going up the Taunton.
Even though Weaver’s Cove says its wants to bring cheaper energy to the region, the project has very little public or political support in the region. There are fears that the tankers will be tempting targets
for terrorists and the security associated with the 70 trips they make up could disrupt life in local waters.
Perry’s letter of recommendation confirms that every tanker trip has the potential to be disruptive to life in Narragansett and Mt. Hope bays.
He says the security zone around a tanker, as it travels up the bay, could extend for two miles in front of the vessel, one mile behind it, and more than half a mile on either side. That exclusion zone of 1,000 yards on either flank of the 145-foot-wide ship would effectively force all occupied boats out of the waters off Newport whenever a tanker came through, particularly from Castle Hill Light to the northern edge of Fort Adams State Park.
The same would be true for the bay waters off Middletown and Portsmouth, anywhere in the vicinity of the Mt. Hope Bridge, the south eastern coast of Bristol and the waters off Fall River.
Part of the report dealing with escorting LNG vessels notes that public festivals and other events with VIPs are frequently held in Newport, at the Naval War College and at other portions along the
tanker route. “Additional security measures should be considered on a case by case basis,” the letter says.
The other four sections dealing with vessel escort have been redacted.
Once berthed, all boats should be required to stay more than half a mile from the supertanker, according to Perry’s letter. That would cut off boating access to a large chunk of Mt. Hope Bay.
The section that is supposed to deal with bridge closures has been stripped to two sentences, one saying that the Pell and Mt. Hope bridges cross over the LNG tanker route, the other saying that both bridges are owned by the Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority. Everything else has been deleted. Experts have said that the bridges will have to be shut down during the transits.
Also redacted from the analysis is information on shoreline security, remote surveillance and monitoring, security measures when a tanker is at berth in Mt. Hope Bay, and measures to protect the 4.2 miles of underground insulated pipeline that will be used to pump the LNG from the offloading terminal to Fall River, via Somerset.
That much secrecy is unwarranted, said Gallison. “Everybody knows where the pipeline is going, everyone knows where the tanker is going. You can figure out the fallout zones if, God-forbid, there should be a
breach of one of the tankers.” Weaver’s Cove has said it is now on track to have the facility running in 2015.
gemery@projo.com / (401) 277-7442, reprinted from the Providence Journal