Several South Portland residents active in the successful fight to ban so-called tar-sands oil from the city are now concerned that the Portland-Montreal Pipe Line is pumping something other than crude oil to Montreal.

This week, resident Robert Sellin sent an email both to the City Council and to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection voicing his belief that the local pipeline is sending natural gas liquids to Canada along with the crude oil it’s licensed to pump.

In a statement sent to the Current on Tuesday, however, Jim Merrill, spokesman for the Portland-Montreal Pipe Line, denied there has been a change in the product the pipeline is shipping north.

“PMPL is a crude oil pipeline that has historically pumped crude oil including heavy, medium and light crudes with all appropriate permits and in conformity with all federal and state regulations. There have not been any recent changes to the types of oil that PMPL handles,” he said.

Merrill’s comments corroborate information that City Manager Jim Gailey gathered early in the week. Gailey told the Current on Tuesday morning that the product the pipeline is pumping is “crude (that’s) been in the port numerous times before.”

On Monday, Mayor Linda Cohen said that she asked Gailey to check out what Portland-Montreal Pipe Line is pumping to Montreal these days in response to the concerns raised by Sellin and others, including Eben Rose. Rose is a geologist, as well as a regular columnist for the Current.

Cohen said she asked Gailey to look into the issue because the city of South Portland has a responsibility “to look into any safety concerns raised.”

In the email Sellin sent to the City Council, he said the Portland-Montreal Pipe Line is licensed to “only (pump) crude oil through its pipeline but we have reason to believe that (it’s) now pumping highly volatile natural gas liquids to Canada in addition to crude oil.”

He added, “Online maps published by the oil industry show this to be the case. This is an important matter that affects the health and safety of the community and the region.”

In Sellin’s email to Patricia Aho, the commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, he said, “The citizens of South Portland urge your department to require (the pipeline) to disclose what they are pumping through our neighborhoods and across our state.”

Sellin also reiterated his stance that if the pipeline is pumping natural gas liquids, it represents a change in “business practice (that) presents significant public health and safety issues.”

On Tuesday afternoon, Karl Wilkins, spokesman for the Department of Environmental Protection, confirmed the receipt of Sellin’s email to Aho and other bureau staff.

“The commissioner and several Air Bureau staff did receive an email late last night regarding the Portland Pipe Line,” Wilkins said. “The information submitted is being reviewed.”

Rose, who has taught at both the University of Connecticut and Bowdoin College and who is now pursuing a doctorate in geology and geophysics, said the evidence he, Sellin and others have gathered regarding the possible change from crude oil to natural gas liquids is all “circumstantial” and that “all of this could be a red herring.”

But, he also argued that the community has a right to know what is being pumped through the pipeline, which runs underneath residential neighborhoods in South Portland.

“We’ve noticed that tankers from the Gulf Coast (Louisiana and Texas) are coming through for the first time, which has caused us to ask what is being sent (through the local pipeline) to Canada.”

Rose said that several types of ultra light crude oils, which are closer in nature to the highly explosive liquid natural gas products, can be defined as crude even though the product is not what people would generally think of as typical crude.

He said the concern is that the natural gas liquids require a different protocol for safety and handling than the more typical, heavier crude oil.

“If the pipeline is not pumping crude, we need to know,” Rose said.

Although Rose and Sellin worked with Protect South Portland on the tar-sands ban, which was approved last summer after a long and controversial debate, Mary-Jane Ferrier, spokeswoman for the group, said this week that the correspondence to the City Council is “(Sellin’s) initiative.”

However, Ferrier also said, “Many of his concerns are ones (Protect South Portland) share and have been pursuing in different quarters (such as with the Department of Environmental Protection).”

Ferrier said the governing board of Protect South Portland was scheduled to meet on Tuesday, after the Current’s deadline, and one of the items on the agenda would be the issue of whether the Portland-Montreal pipeline is transporting something other than traditional crude oil to Canada.

“I cannot speak authoritatively about Protect South Portland’s desires (on this issue),” she said. “However, it has always been our contention that (the pipeline company) owes it to the citizens of South Portland to embrace transparency about their operations. If they will not do so, then the City Council should take all means in their power to demand an accounting of what is going through the pipeline that runs under our streets.”