PORTSMOUTH — Construction of the revised liquefied natural gas facility on Old Mill Lane has been completed, marking another milestone in a years-long effort to shore up the natural gas system serving Aquidneck Island — and in a project that has faced persistent opposition from neighbors and town officials.

The Narragansett Electric Co., doing business as Rhode Island Energy, notified the Rhode Island Energy Facility Siting Board (EFSB) and Public Utilities Commission (PUC) of the project’s completion in a letter dated Sept. 8.

“The company has completed construction,” attorney George W. Watson III wrote.

The company also invited members of the EFSB and PUC to tour the completed facility at 111 Old Mill Lane.

The filing closes the construction phase of a project that has been before state regulators for years and generated controversy over whether an industrial LNG operation belongs in a residential Portsmouth neighborhood.

A longstanding vulnerability

The Old Mill Lane property has been part of Aquidneck Island’s natural gas infrastructure for decades. A gas gate station was established there in 1963, where gas entering the island’s distribution system is metered, odorized and its pressure regulated. The site was also used in earlier years to provide supplemental gas supplies during periods of high demand.

The current LNG operation grew out of longstanding concerns about the reliability of Aquidneck Island’s natural gas supply, brought into sharp focus by the January 2019 gas crisis.

About 7,500 customers in Newport and Middletown lost natural gas service during bitterly cold weather. Aquidneck Island is particularly vulnerable because its distribution system sits at the end of a branch of the interstate pipeline network and relies on a single connection to that transmission system, company officials have said.

After the crisis, National Grid, Rhode Island Energy’s predecessor, began deploying portable LNG equipment at Old Mill Lane during the winter. LNG brought in by tanker truck could be vaporized and fed into the distribution system during periods of high demand or supply disruptions.

Rhode Island Energy has argued that Old Mill Lane is particularly well suited for that role because the property sits adjacent to the only connection between the company’s Aquidneck Island distribution system and the interstate natural gas transmission system.

‘Does not belong’

For neighbors, however, the central question has long been not whether Aquidneck Island needs reliable energy, but whether Old Mill Lane is the right place to provide it.

Residents have complained about noise from generators and other equipment, lighting, LNG tanker traffic, safety and the industrial appearance of the operation. They also questioned how a facility initially deployed as a temporary reliability measure could return winter after winter without becoming, for practical purposes, permanent.

Stephen and Lori MacDonald, longtime residents who live across from the facility, have been among its most persistent critics. In filings with the EFSB, they said noise had been their “number one concern.”

Town officials also pushed back strongly.

In 2023, the Portsmouth Town Council recommended denial of Rhode Island Energy’s request for a variance from the town’s noise ordinance, concluding that the potential hardship to surrounding residents outweighed the utility’s need for relief from local sound limits.

The Portsmouth Zoning Board of Review rejected the utility’s request for a special-use permit, finding the project was an industrial use in a residential zone surrounded by homes. It also raised concerns about noise and LNG deliveries along Old Mill Lane, a two-lane residential road, and concluded the operation could create a nuisance or hazard.

State overrides objections

The EFSB ultimately disagreed with the town’s conclusions.

The state board found the redesigned facility should comply with Portsmouth’s noise ordinance except possibly in rare circumstances. It also cited findings that traffic impacts would be minimal and that the proposal complied with relevant portions of the town’s comprehensive plan.

The state ultimately approved the project, allowing Rhode Island Energy to continue using Old Mill Lane for standby peak-shaving and backup gas supplies. The revised layout and newer equipment were designed in part to reduce noise and other impacts that fueled neighborhood complaints.

The disagreement has endured: Rhode Island Energy maintains the location is critical to protecting Aquidneck Island from another serious gas-supply interruption, while opponents contend solving that regional problem should not require a long-term industrial LNG operation in a residential neighborhood.

The Sept. 8 filing indicates the physical work is now finished.

Rhode Island Energy characterized the document as its “Final Quarterly Construction Update,” with no indication that additional construction remains at the site.