The meetings will be open to the public. But as Planning Board Chairman Bruce Probert stressed in conversation on Friday, the public hearings are over. From here, the deliberations are strictly within the board.

Searsport Planning Board deliberations start Wednesday, March 27, and continue on
March 28, April 3, 10, 11, with two additional days, April 17 and 18, set aside if necessary. All meetings will be held at Union Hall, 1 Union Street, Searsport from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.

"There's not going to be any public comment or outbursts," he said. "There'll be a warning and then removal. It's not going to be a circus."

The last of the public hearings ended with cries from opponents that they were being silenced. On the final day for submission of written By contrast, Town Attorney Kristin Collins said the amount of time given to public hearings on this development had been extraordinary.

One of these studies, a 2012 Environmental Assessment by the Army Corps of Engineers, recently came under fire by Islesboro Islands Trust and Thanks But No Tank, local groups that oppose the LPG terminal.

Last week the groups filed a 60-day Notice of Intent to sue the Army Corps for violations of the National Environmental Policy Act and the Clean Water Act in an effort to get the agency to withdraw its original permit and subject the LPG proposal to a more extensive Environmental Impact Statement study. The major problem with the original permit, according to IIT and TBNT, is that it failed to consider the possibility that the Searsport terminal might be used for exports.

Concerns among residents of Searsport and neighboring towns about the development have included safety, adverse effects on property values and tourism, increased truck traffic on local roads and the implications of the specialized cargo ship traffic in Penobscot Bay. One of the more elusive questions from the standpoint of opponents has been where all that propane is going go.

Representatives of DCP Midstream have consistently said the facility is intended to supply local markets, primarily in Maine but also around New England. Some opponents, however, believe that the facility might reverse the flow and start exporting, a move they say would be consistent with today's markets.

“The reason that is being given just does not pass the straight face test,” said Steve Miller, executive director of IIT. “We've been in contact with people in the oil and gas industries who are scratching their heads. They say there’s nobody building import facilities, and in fact there’s a rush to convert existing import facilities for exporting.”

So why does it matter which way the propane flows?

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Import-export question flares up on eve of Searsport LPG deliberations

The difference, according to Miller, is that the market for imported propane in the Northeast is naturally limited by geography, but if the flow were reversed for exports to markets in Europe or Asia, the volume could jump exponentially, meaning more trucks on the road and more ships in the bay.

“The major point is not whether they’re going to export, it’s that they could export,” he said. “The marketplace might compel them to consider exporting and to do that could be far more environmentally devastating than importing.”

Speaking on Friday, DCP Midstream spokeswoman Roz Elliott said company’s plans have not changed since the original application. She confirmed the basics: The facility is to be for import only, the propane would be distributed in Maine and New England, and there would be roughly 50 trucks per day in winter and fewer in the summer.

“We’re in this business for the long term,” she said. “We've seen shifts in the industry back and forth. We’re not looking at this in two year shifts … We’re confident in our business strategy and model. It’s intended to be an import [facility] and that’s what it is.”

Part of the idea of having a large terminal in Searsport, she said, is to have flexibility in the event of temporary constraints to supplies coming from Canada and the Midwest.

Elliott dismissed the research of opponents and called the latest action by IIT and TBNT “unfortunate” given the amount of work the Army Corps has already done — and in DCP’s view, done well.

“This feels like another desperate attempt by the opposition to stall things and that’s what they’ve been doing for two years,” she said.

Probert said the actions by IIT and TBNT might ultimately affect the project, but they wouldn't be a factor in the Planning Board's upcoming deliberations.

"We have a complete applications from DCP and they have the permits that are required," he said. "... From our viewpoint on the Planning Board, we have the position that we'll continue forward with our process until a judge or court tells us to stop."

The Planning Board deliberations start Wednesday, March 27, and continue on March 28, April 3, 10, 11, with two additional days, April 17 and 18, set aside if necessary. All meetings will be held at Union Hall, 1 Union Street, Searsport from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Ethan Andrews can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com