FREE PRESS • November 24, 2020
Maine Board of Environmental Protection on November 19 granted four key permits to Nordic Aquafarms for its proposed land-based salmon farm in Belfast. BEP signed off on Nordic’s permits for Natural Resources Protection Act, Site Location of Development Act, Minor Air Emissions, and Maine Pollutant Discharge Elimination System. The latter allows Nordic to discharge a monthly average flow of 7.7 million gallons of treated wastewater into Penobscot Bay via a pipeline that would extend about 1 kilometer from shore. Nordic still needs several federal permits and a strip of intertidal land that would be crossed by the pipeline is the subject of two ongoing lawsuits.