About a hundred people, many of them wearing matching yellow T-shirts, packed the room Tuesday for a public workshop held by the Canaveral Port Authority to discuss a controversial proposal to build a liquefied natural gas plant on land it owns on Merritt Island.
The meeting closed out with a pledge from Commissioner Micah Loyd.
“At this time, I'm going to make a motion in the morning, out of the gate, that we put this thing to bed,” Loyd said, referencing Wednesday’s scheduled commission meeting.
The room erupted in applause.
The recent proposal to build the liquefied natural gas, or LNG, plant comes from the Chesapeake Utilities Corp. and BHE GT&S, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Energy. Commissioner said the proposal was unsolicited: meaning the Port Authority, an independent governmental agency overseeing the Canaveral Port District in central and northern Brevard County, did not advertise the land for sale or request bids from potential developers.
Still, commissioners have been hearing out the companies’ pitch, starting with an initial presentation made to the board in December. The LNG plant proposal has sparked a range of health and safety concerns from area residents.
Philip Stasik, a retired airline captain and longtime North Merritt Island resident, said it’s not the LNG in itself he’s worried about. He knows the fuel is necessary for space travel, plus the area’s expanding cruise port.
“Honestly, I am very familiar with liquefied natural gas. I've seen it in many of the cities that I've flown to,” Stasik said. “We probably would benefit from having a liquefied natural gas plant — but not in this location. It is all about location, location, location.”
The proposed plant would be built within 350 feet of the nearest residential home, and half a mile from nearby Stevenson Elementary School, Stasik said. That’s something he described as “completely unacceptable.”
Stasik said he thinks it would make much more sense for the plant to be built at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
“They have a large amount of land. It was designed to be a barrier, to protect us from the rockets, in the event of an anomaly out there,” Stasik. “So this would be a logical thing to have close to them. They're going to be the customers.”
Company representatives gave a presentation Tuesday to address some aspects of their proposal, including safety concerns. Roger Williams with BHE GT&S said the project has “strong support” at the state and federal levels.
“They recognize this would serve as a key strategic asset for the state of Florida and the United States, given the critical industries that they will be serving,” Williams said.
Williams also downplayed the risks of building an LNG plant so close to residential and commercial developments.
“Small-scale facilities are custom-designed to fulfill a specific purpose and to integrate in the local community, oftentimes, adjacent to neighborhoods and commercial districts,” he said.
One of the company’s presentation slides highlighted eight LNG facilities, including two in Florida, that are located less than 1,000 feet from residential and commercial developments. The slide says they “operate safely without impact on the neighbors.”
Commissioner Loyd wasn’t convinced.
“I keep hearing the word ‘small,’” Loyd said, “but the facility here is proposed to be double the size of the one in Jacksonville.”
Loyd is also concerned about potential noise pollution from an LNG plant, he said. “So I've asked: Are we going to be running generators that are natural gas generators? Or are we going to have (Florida Power & Light) providing power to it?”
Loyd said he still doesn’t have the answers to those questions — leading him to announce that he plans to file a motion Wednesday to toss out the proposal.
Sisters Christine and Nicole Layne were at the workshop, holding up big signs they made to protest the LNG plant. Christine Layne’s sign read: “Don’t destroy our island.”
She described Tuesday’s workshop as “encouraging.”
“I just hope they continue with this positive path. And I do trust (the commissioners), you know. I think we need to trust them. … Hopefully tomorrow, they can prove that they mean what they say,” she said.
Christine Layne said Tuesday’s big turnout speaks to residents’ “passion” for ensuring future generations have a safe, healthy place to live.
“We do not want a heavy, industrialized island,” she said.
Port Authority commissioners have a regular meeting scheduled for 9 a.m. Wednesday. Although the proposed LNG plant isn’t on the agenda, many residents said they plan to come and speak during a public comment period.
The companies built a website for the project, canaverallng.com. Residents opposed to the project have their own website, nocanaverallng.com.
