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LNG Foes Paint Dire Pictures

Daniel Fowler, Herald New Staff Reporter - 12/2/2004

Claiming that area residents have the right to know the contents of reports commissioned by Hess LNG dealing with safety and security, members of the Coalition for Responsible Siting of LNG Facilities took it upon themselves Wednesday to present to the public two potential disaster scenarios associated with the company,s proposed project.
"Let (Hess LNG) refute (the scenarios) with the facts, and the facts are in (the reports) -- and that is exactly the reason they don't want to give it to us," coalition Chairman Joseph Carvalho said at St. Michael's Church, where the forum took place.
About 45 people attended the gathering.
Specifically, Carvalho was referring to reports prepared by Quest Consultants and Lloyd's Register North America, which deal with the safety and security of both liquefied natural gas tankers and the LNG facility Hess LNG has proposed to build in the city.
The reports are not readily available, because Hess LNG filed them with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as critical energy infrastructure information.

Coalition member Michael Miozza made the first presentation, which highlighted what he believes could conceivably happen if a terrorist attacked the proposed LNG terminal by striking it with a small seaplane.
The incident, he said, would feature a massive fire, would result in 70,000 people in the Somerset/Fall River area dying. Thirty thousand more would suffer first-, second- or third-degree burns, and many of those would die later. Only 10,000 people within a three-mile radius of the terminal would live.
"The likelihood of this happening is highly unlikely, but a chain of events could lead to a catastrophic event like that," Miozza said. "It could be 30,000 deaths, but even one is too many when there are alternatives" for where to site the facility.
Miozza said his scenario was based on information he gathered from a number of sources including the "ABS study" commissioned by FERC, historical information and studies by both James Fay, a former MIT professor, and Jerry Havens, a professor from the University of Arkansas.

Alfred Lima, another coalition member, presented a second scenario. In Lima's scenario, a terrorist attacked an LNG tanker south of the Braga Bridge.
The consequence of Lima's scenario was 80 percent of the structures in Fall River destroyed by fire, 50,000 people killed, 20,000 people suffering first-, second- or third-degree burns and 20,000 people surviving.
Lima's scenario did not impact Somerset because the simulated attack occurred before the LNG tanker was in range of the town.
"What annoys us is that FERC says these risks can be managed," Lima said. "Nobody can manage a terrorist that wants to strike a tanker. We believe these scenarios are quite credible."
Lima said his scenario was based on the same information as Miozza's.

While the coalition believes the Hess LNG-commissioned reports should be available to the public, both Lima and Miozza have followed the FERC process, which should theoretically enable them to access the information.
Both men signed FERC non-disclosure agreements at least three months ago in hopes of getting copies of the reports.
For FERC even to consider releasing CEII information, a person must first sign a non-disclosure agreement in which the person promises not to disclose the CEII to anyone else.
Neither Lima nor Miozza have received a ruling from FERC.
But Lima wondered what good it would do if FERC provided them with the reports.
"If we had the reports, (Miozza) and I couldn't even talk about (them)," Lima said. "It's a Catch-22."

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