Norway’s Ambassador in DC visits Maine and Nordic Aquafarms for discussions about how to pursue closer cooperation between the two countries.
Norway’s Ambassador in DC visits Maine and Nordic Aquafarms for discussions about how to pursue closer cooperation between the two countries.
Land-based salmon farming is a new seafood segment in Maine. Because community members have many questions, Nordic Aquafarms offers the following answers to frequently asked questions about our operations and technology. We will continue to update this Q&A summary sheet and provide additional information through newsletters and information meetings to address questions related to the benefits and potential impacts of the project in Belfast, Maine.
Absolutely. As we have said many times, we chose Belfast only after months of searching locations from Maryland to the Canadian border. The Belfast site not only seemed to fit our criteria for access to pristine, abundant and sustainable sources of fresh and salt water, but we also found a vibrant, engaged, progressive community located within a day’s drive of major markets in the Northeast US.
We also found city leadership that was welcoming and encouraging, and had worked closely with other large businesses, such as Athenahealth and Front Street Shipyard, as well as many smaller businesses, to help them grow and succeed. The scale and scope of our facility will be very appropriate for Belfast, and we look forward to being part of the community.
The US is the largest consumer market for seafood in the Western world. Yet, the options for farming a cold-water fish such as salmon, have been limited in the US. Currently the U.S. imports over 90 % of its salmon and most other seafood. Land-based farming can have a big effect on this equation in the future as locally produced fresh product increases.
Land-based salmon aquaculture differs from other production methods in many important ways. Key benefits include:
Improved traceability from American products subject to strict U.S. regulation;
Protection of wild salmon populations against escape and the spread of disease;
Greatly reduced risks related to storms in contained systems;
Dramatically reduced discharge of nutrients compared to other methods;
Improved fish welfare from the absence of ocean parasites;
Lower mortalities without the use of sea lice treatments and medication;
Conversion of one pound of feed to produce one pound of fish;
Increased product quality with firm texture and lower fat content;
Production super fresh product close to the customer;
Elimination of Co2 from airfreight of fresh salmon from distant locations
Complete indoor containment, without the use of public space in the ocean.
The production method is rated as “best choice” for salmon by the Monterey Aquarium Seafood Watch due to its sustainability benefits.
No. Nordic Aquafarms salmon is a pure and natural product.
The only addition to the water is lye (sodium or potassium hydroxide) to maintain optimal pH levels in the production tanks. As fish feed, their metabolism lowers the pH levels, so we dose small amounts of lye to maintain the same pH levels as in the water we take in. Thus, we discharge water without any change to pH as lye naturally reacts with the water to maintain consistent natural levels. Small amounts of chlorine are used in the fish processing facility to disinfect processed water.
99 percent of nutrients such as solids and phosphorus are removed before discharge. Medications that conceivably could be harmful to other sea life, are not used in our facility. The main risk of disease would come from the bay itself, and thus our final treatment stage of intake water is treated with UV light to prevent intake of pathogens. Unlike other local discharges, our plant will discharge small amounts of residual nutrients far out from the coastline, and quickly be spread with ocean currents.
There is nothing in the discharge that would harm local sea life, nor be noticeable along the coastline.
This question has been posed to us. The simple answer is that sea lice require a great many hosts in larger concentrations to multiply. We are moving those hosts out of reach of any sea lice. For this reason, land-based seafood farming is seen as a very promising preventative measure against sea lice proliferation. The remaining salmon in the ocean would be the wild salmon. Those are thinly spread and only stay in the bay for limited periods of time. They do not provide the numbers or concentrations of hosts required to stimulate growth in sea lice in the region. When wild salmon pass through areas with great concentrations of salmon in the ocean acting as hosts for sea lice, the wild salmon are more vulnerable unlike the situation with the Belfast facility.
We employ a number of strategies. Most importantly, we expose all incoming and outgoing water to doses of ultra-violet (UV) light doses to neutralize pathogens. After the water has been treated, we also supplement the water treatment with an all-natural flocculant made of shrimp shells and other natural products, that naturally binds with bacteria and virus, which are then filtered out.
There is virtually no risk. We are farming Atlantic Salmon, in safe indoor systems. Land-based salmon farming is widely recognized as a solution to the problem of fish escape, due to its location on land. Bad weather and storms will not result in escape. A number of mechanical barriers in the indoor production modules prevents escape. For this reason, land-based operators internationally are allowed to work with a range of species that are not native to their location, as is the case with our Danish facility Sashimi Royal working with Yellowtail Kingfish. These species would normally be forbidden for ocean farming in many locations.
No. Our fish are not in any way GMO modified. Northern Europe bases its production on a natural salmon product that has been bred through careful selection to improve resistance to disease and to achieve good natural growth. Nordic Aquafarms will be sourcing feed ingredients and products that are from non-GMO sources, available in Maine.
Nordic Aquafarms is uniquely positioned as an early mover in land based aquaculture. As technologies and know-how begin to mature, production can scale up very quickly if there is an attractive market.
Land-based farming has been through an early innovator phase, where mistakes, learning and improvement has been going on for some years. Many of the risks and solutions are now much better understood by those who have a track-record with larger scale facilities. But land-based farming is not an “off-the-shelf” product, and thus experienced teams with practical experience and development capacities, remain a key condition for scaling up at an acceptable risk. Our senior staff has considerable experience, including year of work in fish farming and related fields before becoming part of the Nordic Aquafarms team.
Two Norwegian companies have a strong forward position in this market and are considered to be international leaders in the segment. They have been built on the back-bone of the largest salmon producing nation in the world, and yet with a different sustainability mission. Norwegian owned Atlantic Sapphire (a different company) is operating a farm in Denmark and is in its first construction phase in Florida, which aims to become a 90,000 metric tons farm. Nordic Aquafarms is operating two farms in Denmark, constructing a third in Norway and permitting for a fourth in Belfast that will be smaller than the Florida farm. Both companies have staff that have a track-record of producing salmon with the capabilities to scale up. We do not recommend that start-ups go straight to building a large farm, unless they have staff with a robust track-record in facility design and production. Scaling is a step-by-step process, which we have done.
We are seeing an explosion in interest for land-based seafood farming internationally, due to its many benefits. As with many other industries, there are certainly still risks. However, when international investors look to where to invest, the two Norwegian companies stand out. And by the time Nordic Aquafarms plans larger scale production in Belfast three years from now, we will benefit from additional learning. Every year, our investments in R&D are adding new insights into quality enhancement and risk reduction. We are testing, evaluating and developing cutting-edge solutions on a continuous basis.
Although the Belfast facility will use much more seawater than freshwater, both are required for production. The use of freshwater is greatly reduced due to application of a range of environmental technologies, including so-called denitrification reduction.
Our commitment to Belfast is that modelling of ground water withdrawal must show that any withdrawal must be sustainable without any adverse effects for us or the community.
Given that we would be located at the very end of a large watershed that empties out into the ocean, preliminary results indicate that required withdrawal rates of approximately 1200 gallons a minute are sustainable.
Sustainability will be carefully assessed and documented for the permitting process. It would make no sense for Nordic Aquafarms to invest without a sustainable fresh water resource and access to clean ocean water, and we certainly have no intention of doing anything to harm the availability or quality of either water source.
Nordic Aquafarms is a “green” company, as is reflected in how we develop and construct our facilities. A part of our US brand will be to highlight our sustainable facility development and beautiful location. In addition, most of the trees on the site are higher than the buildings, and thus provides visual buffering. Facades are being developed to give a soft footprint in their surroundings.
As production is happening indoors, there is a limited need for outdoor lights. We do not see this facility producing any material light pollution in the area or on the skyline.
Will the Little River dam and building be preserved and what about the trails?
Yes. We recognize how important these landmarks are to the community and we intend to use them as an integral part of our brand image for the salmon produced in Belfast.
In addition, a green buffer will be maintained around our facility and the Little River trails will remain open to the public and maintained just as they are today
These facilities are quiet running as infrastructure is placed indoors. There will not be noticeable noise for neighbors, beyond occasional trucks coming in and out. Our own trucks will be electric.
There is no smell around our facilities. Operations are indoors and give off very little smell. By-products from fish processing are block-frozen and shipped out for sale to a variety of commercial customers. Sludge from the production is dewatered indoors and stored in sealed containers before further processing.
The facility will be packed with renewable energy concepts. Solar on roofs, heat exchangers, electric vehicles and power consumption optimization systems are examples. Our energy costs will be a moderate component of the overall production costs, and we expect our facility to be a showcase for energy efficiency.
First of all, Nordic Aquafarms has access to large financial resources and would not pursue a project in the US, unless we had confidence in what we are doing and access to required capital. Our commitment to Belfast is an important step towards public listing of our company.
Second, global seafood is a growth market in the coming decades. Global production needs to double in the next three decades according to FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization, United Nations). The main reason for this is global population growth, high protein efficiency of fish, and the sustainability challenges related to a number of other forms of protein production. Fish is widely recognized as the one most efficient ways of producing protein. Meanwhile, wild catch volumes have plateaued globally for a number of years. The world now farms as much fish as is caught in the world oceans.
Third, if a Belfast facility were ever to go out of business, an opportunity would open up for other investors to come in at a much lower investment cost. That would be an attractive proposition in a global growth industry. Belfast is a good location for seafood production close to large US consumer markets. The US has a large seafood deficit and much of the seafood consumed is imported, thus there is a large attractive seafood market for investors.
Nordic Aquafarms shareholders are among the strongest investor names in Norway. In addition, we received inquiries every week from interested investors, including US investors.
Recently, the other land-based company based in Norway, Atlantic Sapphire had a new share issues where they raised close to $80 M USD in five hours for their Florida project. This illustrates the tremendous capital interest for the forward positioned land-based producers in Norway. In addition, the board members of Nordic Aquafarms are strong names from the capital industry with a proven track-record of raising capital. The Belfast project will be a lot of work to get on its feet, but strong investment interest is present among our current shareholders and also in the capital markets. They are prepared to invest in Belfast over the next years. The capital base in Nordic Aquafarms will double in 2018 alone as a part of our scaling strategy.
Please stay tuned to future additions to the Q&A section on our website.
There is a 90 percent deficit in fresh seafood trade in the U.S. A large amount of the fresh salmon consumed in the U.S. is flown in from Europe, Chile and New Zealand, leaving a considerable carbon footprint. Along with an expected 7 to 8 percent annual growth in seafood consumption, there is a strong incentive for creating new, sustainable food systems in the U.S.
While the demand-supply gap keeps growing, there is no growth in sight from wild catch fisheries or net pen operations. Thus, solutions must take a new approach to fish farming and be sustainable. This is where local, land-based aquaculture comes into the picture.
Nordic Aquafarms was started in Norway with a mission to create a more environmentally sustainable way of producing fish — a solution for the future. Nordic Aquafarms is an international front-runner in the land-based fish farming industry. Land-based facilities are indoor production facilities where fish are raised to harvest size in a series of independent tank systems. It is not possible for the fish to escape from our facility, while other potential harmful effects on wild salmon populations are eliminated.
Nordic Aquafarms has done extensive research and development and invested millions in developing the world’s best wastewater treatment system in the recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) industry today. This is done by using existing technologies and by applying several layers of treatment with different technologies to ensure the highest level of nutrient removal possible today. Neither RAS technology nor our water treatment technology are experimental technologies, as has been stated by some people in Maine. Rather, our in-house engineers have designed land-based facilities for more than 20 years and our production managers are also some of the most experienced with RAS technology in the world.
We are also concerned about the state of the ocean. Thus, we are now proud to be able build facilities in which we remove 99 percent of most pollutants and 85 percent of the nitrogen from the water that is discharged from the facility. In our permit application for the Belfast facility, total suspended solids and ammonia levels in the nitrogen discharge are lower than the background levels in the bay.
The environmental impact of land-based fish farms is rigorously regulated through a series of permits that any land-based aquaculture facility in the U.S. has to obtain from various federal, state and local authorities. We have been in extensive dialog with Maine regulators such as the Department of Environmental Protection, and we are impressed with the thoroughness of the process and the demands we are facing.
Some have raised concerns about the cumulative environmental effects of discharge from several aquaculture facilities that would discharge into Penobscot Bay. We support strict regulations and monitoring of discharge, and we are committed to staying within the discharge limits approved in our permit. Nevertheless, every project should be held responsible on its own merits and be required to adhere to discharge limits within their own permits. They shouldn’t be held accountable for what other companies do or fail to do. The way to limit cumulative nutrient discharge effects is to ensure that all facilities are subject to strict regulation of nutrients in their discharge and to ensure that each company follows its permits.
Aquaculture is identified as one of the key areas to be developed in Maine. Land-based fish farming is rapidly gaining interest in the U.S. now, and we see project proposals emerging throughout the country.
With its long seafood tradition, a favorable political climate encouraging land-based fish farming and rigorous regulations and monitoring programs, Maine can have it both ways. Maine can take a leadership role in the new emerging industry here in the U.S., and it can do it in a way that contributes to sustainable food production for the future.
Marianne Naess is the commercial director for Nordic Aquafarms Inc.
A closer look at Nordic Aquafarms RAS facility in Belfast, Maine.
Featured photo is a look at the proposed salmon viewing pond with the visitor center (red brick building) in the background.
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We realize that any new developments should result in questions and sometimes concerns in a community. We have truthfully answered questions and put information out there over the past year as it has become available, while we have completed required engineering and data collection for our applications. And yet, there are people in Belfast who choose to put aside our answers, credible scientific assessments from leading environmental institutions, and a unique opportunity for sustainable economic development in Belfast. Significant misinformation is being put out there. We also understand that there may be many people who have not been able to attend our information meetings or read our newsletters. Therefore, we are distributing this Q&A to address some of the key issues where speculation continues on the local level.
Our message to the citizens of Belfast and Northport is that facts matter, and we ask that those be at the forefront of considerations regarding this project. When you look at the facts, this project has gone far in limiting environmental impact, while offering significant economic development benefits. Clean land-based aquaculture is not bad for the environment.
As we have stated before, we also have an open-door policy in our office on 159 High Street and welcome those who have questions and who are seeking more information.
Why should Nordic Aquafarms care about the environment?
Consumers, businesses and responsible policy makers increasingly care about the environment. The businesses of the future must incorporate both social responsibility and financial objectives to be truly successful in the long-term.
Our brand and future certifications are highly sensitive to our environmental stewardship practices. Businesses that do not stick to their permits, will be punished in the market and may lose their sustainability certifications – as they should. Businesses who take leadership on environmental stewardship are increasingly rewarded. That is why we are investing heavily in environmental technologies and taking clear steps to prove that we are dedicated to protecting the environment. That is why serious environmental organizations support us.
Belfast was chosen for its clean water resources (this was not the case in many locations we considered in Maine). Our production requires clean water to produce high quality fish. We have every incentive to be an environmentalist in Belfast to ensure clean water in the future.
The premises for this project are entirely different than the old chicken days in Belfast.
Are you discharging over 7 million gallons a day?
When the facility is fully developed after a phased build-out it will discharge over 7 million gallons a day, but the implications of this are misrepresented by some in Belfast. Most of the water discharged comes from the bay, is re-circulated in the tank systems, and is rigorously treated before it is returned back to the ocean. Fresh water makes up only approx. 15 percent of this and is a small volume compared to the many other untreated sources of fresh water flowing into the bay today. Most of the discharged water is thus water we have borrowed from the bay and are returning to the bay with less particles than it had coming in. Stories that we are pumping fish waste into the bay are false.
Most importantly, the vast majority of nutrients are removed and recycled before the water is returned to the bay, as we went through in detail in our last public information meeting. We asked the Atlantic Salmon Federation, The Conservation Law Foundation and the Gulf of Maine Research Institute to do an independent peer review of our discharge application. They have all written letters of support that are available to the public stating that they do not see any material impact on the bay from our residual discharge. These are among the most credible environmental institutions in Maine with strong scientific and ecological know-how.
We have a self-interest in monitoring all discharge, in addition to any monitoring requirements put forth by the DEP. We have also stated in public that we will support monitoring programs in the bay to promote the overall health of this ecosystem. We want and need clean water and will support overall protection efforts in the bay. Our brand is built on an environmental platform, and it would be detrimental to ourselves and all if we caused harm to the bay.
The start-up RAS company in Bucksport will be discharging over double the amount of nutrients and water in the bay as Nordic Aquafarms in our first phase. In fact, Nordic Aquafarms will eventually have a lower discharge with six times the production. Their discharge would be considered a more common level in the industry. They have already received their permit. For some reason, no one seemed to have a problem with their discharge application while calling our discharge a massive and bad discharge. We can restate that Nordic Aquafarms has the highest standard in the industry with regards to waste water treatment, and the experience to execute this project. We have nothing against other projects, but the contrasts in reactions from local self-proclaimed environmentalists are striking.
How far does the discharge pipe go out?
Environmental scientists have worked to find an optimal placement based on extensive studies of the bay, currents and modelling. The final recommendation provided to us is placement of the discharge point 1 kilometer from the shoreline. This is consistent with what we communicated in our discharge application and public information meeting in October 2018.
The placement is based on optimal dispersion point at a preferable depth. We have been challenged to not put unnecessary piping in the bay unless this gives significant benefit. As there was no clear scientific benefit of extending the pipe further than 1 kilometer, this became the recommended solution. The path of the pipe has been adjusted along the way due to complicated intertidal property issues with history back to colonial times. The pipe will not be visible to anyone as it will be buried below the intertidal.
Do you have harmful pesticides or additives in the discharge?
We have stated numerous times that we do not use growth hormones, antibiotics, GMO, or pesticides in our daily production. We apply many of the same standards as with humans: we vaccinate our fish to prevent disease (by injection in each fish), protect our fish against exposure to disease, and would only consider medication in exceptional cases in consultation with Maine veterinarians. We produce a natural product and thus do not add any harmful chemicals to the production water. FDA approved cleaners and disinfectants are used to clean other parts of the facility and are not directly discharged in any material quantities. We do add a carbon source to our nitrogen reduction system that is consumed by natural nitrogen consuming bacteria. This is thus not discharged and has no impact on the environment.
Claims from certain local people that our farming is a toxic stew was discredited as misleading pseudo-science by leading scientists in Maine and elsewhere in 2018. Local claims that we have disease in our facilities were also discredited through a veterinary report available on Belfast City´s homepage. We have also uncovered false references and misuse of sources in those stories. Leading academics in Maine will confirm that fish feeds available in the US market today have very low levels of any contaminants, while we unfortunately see rising levels in some wild caught fish. Fish meal would be the potential source of any contaminants, and we have repeatedly stated that the amount of fish meal used is dramatically reduced in recent years. Feed producers are now also actively removing potential contaminants from their fish meal. New sustainable ingredients such as insect meal and algae products that are rich in omega 3 and 6 are rapidly emerging in the market. We are monitoring these developments before choosing our feed in Belfast. We will produce a clean and natural product. Our products in Belfast will have full traceability for the consumer – this is the future of seafood.
It should also be noted that we do not use any medications for sea lice treatment as these cannot enter our systems.
Is RAS and your farm an experimental facility?
Waste water treatment is hardly new; the question is what any given company is willing to invest to be clean. Nordic Aquafarms has recognized the importance of clean food systems, and we have invested accordingly. Water treatment technologies throughout the facility are tried and proven technologies from global water treatment leaders such as Mitsubishi.
Land-based facilities are hardly new either. There are dozens of large facilities internationally, with the highest concentrations in Norway. Currently, new facilities are announced almost weekly internationally. As confidence in these systems have continued to grow, investor confidence and size of facilities have also grown. The new development in the past 5 years is that an increasing number of companies are taking fish to harvest size in these systems as an alternative to net pens. The technology is not experimental, but rapidly developing.
Experience is important. Nordic Aquafarms is the only land-based grow-out producer internationally with three large facilities in operation. We are the only land-based producer with 14 specialized engineers employed. Our senior staff has raised salmon for decades. All our designs are modular with independent tank systems. When we increase the size of our facilities, we are simply just adding more modules. Thus, this method is hardly new to us and the Belfast facility will be developed in phases over time by adding modules.
Comparing us to start-ups in this segment is a strong misrepresentation. Among the companies announcing new land-based facilities we have a unique experience base and the benefit of over 50 employees. Our design team has designed facilities for Grieg Seafood, Marine Harvest and other large seafood players over the past 20 years. No other RAS player has this inhouse experience. We also draw on an extensive research base in Norway, Denmark and the US, while channeling this into our land-based agenda. For these reasons, Nordic Aquafarms is in a unique position to finance our projects compared to other start-ups in this segment.
Can fish escape from your facility?
Our facilities are escape-proof. The Belfast facility will be a minimum 300 feet from any open water source. Multiple mechanical barriers are in place to prevent escape in pipes. To give an example, our final micro-filtration step on the discharge treatment is 0.5 micron – that is fine-masked enough to remove bacteria! Each facility must be evaluated on its own merits.
There are at most a couple of known escape episodes from smolt facilities internationally over many years. These facilities have been located right at the shoreline to allow pumping of smolt to well-boats. There are also older facilities around that may not have the same level of escape prevention measures as modern facilities. In such instances and with pumping of fish into well-boats, accidents can potentially happen, although this has been very rare in the industry. This is an entirely different situation than the proposed farm in Belfast. Generalizing that fish will escape from a land-based facility displays a lack of understanding of how this is prevented, and clearly a lack of understanding or interest in how we have addressed such risk.
Fish escape is bad PR and contrary to our environmental commitment. Thus, we have a strong incentive to design escape-proof facilities. We have no problem guaranteeing that our Belfast facility is escape-proof because it is. US authorities will verify this in permitting.
Are you clearcutting 50 acres of protected forest?
No. Our buildings will displace approx. 30 acres of forest that has been logged on a regular basis, as recently as last year by its owners. We are also replanting areas and maintaining green visual buffers. In return for this, Belfast will be producing approx. 7 percent of US consumption of salmon. In addition, we are working with the city to protect 80 acres at the upper reservoir for the community to enjoy through a donation.
Are you a concentrated feeding operation (CAFO)?
This terminology has been used by some local opponents. It is generally used to refer to large-scale livestock production where animals are raised in strict confinement. The term is not relevant for farming of salmon, as salmon is a schooling fish. Salmon thrive in greater numbers and densities and we provide them with a clean and healthy environment where they are protected from sea lice and disease. In addition, they swim in the current 24/7 to gain good exercise. CAFO´s have also been accused of pollution and resistance to investment in environmental technologies. In our case, we capture and recycle virtually all nutrients and waste resources. We have documented that we are implementing cutting edge waste water treatment technologies beyond what exists along this coastline today. The use of CAFO in relation to our project is therefore misleading. It is impossible to feed the US population on small-scale food production alone – we are demonstrating how larger scale production can be done in a responsible manner.
Is your facility too big for Belfast?
We are applying for permits that allow for long-term growth of this business in Belfast. The first phase of development will be less than 50% of the planned facility. The nutrient discharge in phase 1 will also be under 50% of the permit application level. There will be ample opportunity for the community to follow our development over time, while we will continue to share information regarding the development of the business.
By securing permits that allow for long-term development, we are also securing the opportunity to add jobs and development in the community for many years to come.
What about the Co2 footprint?
Currently, over 90% of fresh salmon is airfreighted into the US with a Co2 footprint three times our local Co2 footprint. We reduce our footprint further by employing renewable energy solutions. A fresh local product with much less Co2 is environmentally sensible and important in terms of creating sustainable domestic food systems in the US. The Belfast facility will displace a portion of imports with a local craft seafood product. It is therefore also taking pressure off Co2 growth that contributes to climate change.
The lowest Co2 footprint would come from wild salmon fishing or local net pen production. No one sees potential for significant growth of either of these in the US in the coming decades. That leaves land-based production as the cleanest Co2 alternative to grow domestic supply.
Will the facility have any impact on wild salmon populations?
The reason the Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF) has written a letter of support for this project is that their scientific review of our application concludes that there will be little impact from our farm and that it will contribute to taking pressure off wild salmon populations. Our biosecurity and fish escape measures are foremost in the industry. We also take the hosts for sea lice out of the ocean to prevent growth in potentially harmful parasite populations.
Some people prefer wild salmon. Wild salmon is a great product. The fact of the matter is that wild salmon populations have been under huge pressure for many years with strictly regulated fishing quotas on the West Coast. Wild Atlantic Salmon is not commercially available. With the worsening state of oceans and human activity that have impacted salmon rivers, the prospects of significant increases in wild salmon runs in the next decades is nowhere in sight. Wild salmon will never come close to fulfilling US demand and the product is not used in sushi/sashimi due to parasite risk. Wild salmon is in many ways a different product than ours with a higher price point. We support efforts to restore salmon runs, meanwhile there is a need to address a large and growing demand gap for seafood.
Could the facility lead to algae blooms?
As we demonstrated in our discharge information meeting, our waste water system removes the bulk of nutrients for recycling. And the residual discharge is going into a bay with trillions of gallons of water. It is like a drop of water in a bucket. Even though we go far beyond current industry standards by removing 85% nitrogen, we do have elevated levels of nitrogen compared to background levels. The residual discharge is, however, less than 1 percent of the nitrogen already going into the bay. And the ammonia component which would be the most harmful one, is lower than background levels in the bay. If other dischargers raised their treatment level to only 50 % of our level, we would see material reductions in nutrient discharge along the entire coastline.
The Gulf of Maine Research Institute and the Conservation Law Foundation have reviewed our application and not found cause for concern. As far as risk of algae blooms go, there are other contributing factors that pose a far greater risk than our facility. But we will remain diligent in contributing to the health of the bay as a part of our environmental stewardship strategy.
Is our groundwater at risk with Nordic Aquafarms withdrawing water?
In salmon production, smolt must be produced in freshwater (in nature they hatch and grow in rivers). In the following grow-out phase, salmon can grow in the range from freshwater to pure seawater. Our experience and other research show that there is significant benefit of including a certain freshwater component also in the grow-out phase.
We understand that the people of Belfast want to ensure healthy aquafers for the future. As we have stated from day one – we will only withdraw sustainable levels of fresh water on our property, also in long-term draught scenarios. Depleting aquafers would be like shooting ourselves in the foot, so we also have a strong self-interest in healthy aquafers. To quality ensure sustainable levels, we have spent several hundred thousand dollars on groundwater testing and monitoring in Belfast to fully understand the aquafers in the area. We now have extensive data and documentation from experts in Maine.
To ensure that we have no negative impact, we have concluded that we will limit any ground water withdrawal to 450 gallons/minute. Our systems have now been configured for fairly high salinity levels as ocean water will be the primary source of water in this facility. A smaller freshwater component is required for smolt production and to promote an optimal fish welfare environment for the fish.
In conclusion, the extensive data collection and also secondary assessments done by an additional environmental consultancy, conclude that our proposed withdrawal will not have negative effects on the overall health of the watershed area in Belfast. It also concludes that other local wells are safe. We will have fully transparent monitoring practices in place to give assurances to the community in the future.
Conclusion
We have approached the project in Belfast in good faith and put information out there as it becomes available. We have proceeded in Belfast based on broad support, while we understand that some are against. It is not possible to please everyone, but we have done our best to take in input. The Belfast project is our flagship project and we are strongly committed to making it a good story for Belfast and Maine. We already have eight staff in Maine, five of whom are Mainers, and are committed to investing in our people. As this project moves through permitting, we will be looking to hire and train more people in Belfast.
If you have further questions, please drop by our office on High Street in Belfast and have a talk with our staff. We have an open-door policy and welcome visitors who have questions. We also welcome constructive local input as local knowledge is a key ingredient in developing a project like this.
Our final applications are now complete, and a public information meeting will take place on March 26th. This will be announced shortly.
Kind regards,
Erik Heim
President
Nordic Aquafarms Inc.
Nordic Aquafarms is a progressive producer in land-based aquaculture, with production in Norway and Denmark.
Nordic Aquafarms Inc is developing a large salmon production facility in Belfast, Maine and another facility is in permitting in Humboldt County, California.
We develop local, sustainable, and climate resilient seafood solutions.
Nordic Aquafarms
PO Box 283
Belfast, ME 04915
+1 207 505 5728