If Broadwater Energy -- a venture formed by Shell and Trans- Canada -- is approved, the floating liquefied natural gas facility would be up and running in the middle of the sound by 2010.

"Why do they insist on threatening this already stressed body of water?" said Adrienne Esposito, head of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment. "Not to mention it's a floating terrorist target."

Broadwater hired the Giuliani Group, a firm founded by the former New York mayor, to work out any security problems.

"In this day and age, everything is a potential terror target," said Giuliani Group Senior Vice President Richard Sheirer, the former head of the city's Office of Emergency Management. "We're looking at every possible scenario and contingency plan."

The facility, meant to stem impending natural gas shortages in the area, would supply natural gas to 4 million households in New York and Connecticut.

The floating LNG facility would be the size of the Queen Mary 2 and would be the first of its kind in the world. Broadwater officials conceded it presents daunting public relations challenges.

However, said Broadwater Senior Vice President John Hritcko, if there is a spill, the gas would quickly evaporate and leave nothing to clean up. Also, he said, explosions are unlikely because the liquefied gas would not be under pressure.

And the facility -- to be moored 9 miles north of Riverhead and 11 miles south of Connecticut -- would be far enough from land not to be a hazard if there is a problem, officials said.

But Broadwater will have to work overtime to prove it will not hurt the island's fishing industry. Part of the project includes laying 25 miles of pipe under the sound's bottom.

"The more things they put in the sound, the less access baymen will have," said Flo Sharkey, president of the Brookhaven Baymen's Association.