The blast zone included homes and businesses…Working with local attorneys, Jones Swanson helped the 2,800 residents of Searsport, Maine stop the nation’s largest liquid propane gas tank from being built in their town.
Many Searsport residents feared that the tank, which was designed to hold 23 million gallons of liquid propane gas and to stand 14 stories tall, would be not only an eyesore, but a deadly threat. Their fears were confirmed when experts testified that the tank could explode, and that its “blast zone” included homes and businesses in the center of Searsport.
The project also caused alarm in nearby towns around Penobscot Bay, where LPG tankers would have passed through an archipelago of small islands worked by fishing and lobster crews, and visited by millions of tourists each year.
The tank’s “blast zone” would include homes and businesses in the center of town
“The people from New Jersey who want lobster aren’t coming here to eat in the shadow of that tank,” one Searsport resident told The New York Times in February 2013.
After months of legal filings and community activism, in April 2013 the Denver-based company DCP Midstream withdrew its application to build an LPG tank in Searsport, or anywhere in Maine.
Since then, Jones Swanson has continued to work with residents of Maine on initiatives to protect their homes and businesses, as well as their beautiful coastline.
