Ron Huber: Circle of opposition
On Sunday, Nov. 18, hundreds of regional opponents of Denver-based DCP Midstream's proposed huge LPG tank/terminal converged in Belfast to illustrate the gigantic 202-foot diameter bootprint DCP's mega-tank would have. As the citizens later departed, they sang Peter Seeger's "This land is your land."
For more than a year, Thanks But No Tank! has asked the company to provide a scale model of the project, so area decisionmakers and citizens can get a clearer idea of what DCP proposes to build, under its new subsidiary, the limited liability company "DCP Searsport LLC". But despite having an enormous audio visual department, the DCP has claimed an inability to do so.
Exasperated Maine citizens responded to fliers and enotes by gathering Sunday, showing their numbers and letting the public see how enormous the 22.3 million gallon liquified petroleum gas tank would be if constructed. About 300 people from across the Midcoast took part in the action, demonstrating the LPG mega-tank is a regional concern.
The gas distribution company's project would devour the Mack Point Woods between Route 1 and Long Cove, and bulldoze and blast its wetlands-rich soils down to bedrock, turning half of Long Cove's watershed from nutrient-donating forest and wetlands to concrete,steel and asphalt.
In the second photograph, taken after the great circle converged to its center, a balloon is visible, aloft at 14 stories, 138 feet in the air, to show the height the giant tank would rise, if it were ever built. As far as the attendees were concerned, that is by no means a done deal.
Ron Huber lives in Rockland.
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