It’s a “pause” for a developer and cause for celebration for project opponents.
A proposal to build a large salmon farm near Acadia National Park that Norwegian-backed American Aquafarms called a $250 million investment has stalled because the Maine Department of Marine Resources denied a permit application.
According to the department’s commissioner, Patrick Keliher, Maine officials are "no longer moving forward with looking at that application," because they concluded that "fish sources" the company identified for eggs for the salmon farm "do not meet our fish health requirements."
Keliher said that additional genetic information was not supplied after a back-and-forth with American Aquafarms.
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Its application to build the farm is now pushed to the "back of the line," which means it could take another two to three years for the project to get to a public hearing stage.
"I was really quite shocked," said Thomas Brennan, director of project development for American Aquafarms.
During a Monday interview with NECN & NBC 10 Boston, Brennan explained that part of his surprise was that the application was denied outright rather than another conversation between the company and state taking place.
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"My personal opinion is that this is an important project, we will pursue it and these things are solvable," said Brennan, adding that American Aquafarms did not have an immediate timeline on its next move and would “pause” to reassess its path ahead.
“We thought we had this solved based on the information and guidance we were given,” he noted, saying that he thinks, “the supporting documentation exists, it needs to be put into the format that’s acceptable and perhaps now that the application has been denied we can have a conversation with the department.”
Meanwhile, no matter what American Aquafarms next move is, people who oppose the salmon farm said they will continue to organize.
Their concerns about light, noise and unforeseen ecological issues in a highly-visited area of Maine are not ebbing.
“This project was a wakeup call. It’s time to get to work to make sure it can never happen again,” said Henry Sharpe, board president of Frenchman Bay United, a group of people concerned about the salmon farm development.
