The Annapolis, Maryland, U.S.A.-headquartered Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBP) has filed a petition to block a key permit needed by Oslo, Norway-based aquaculture firm AquaCon for its proposed salmon farm in Cecil County, Maryland.
CBP's petition challenges the permit which the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) issued to AquaCon for the farm’s purge water discharge. Purge water is clean water, without feed in it, used in aquaculture to hold fish for a period of time before harvesting to remove any unfavorable tastes in the fish flesh.
The approved permit would allow AquaCon to discharge 1.9 million gallons of purge water a day directly into the Susquehanna River, which contributes half of the total freshwater that inputs into the Chesapeake Bay. However, the river is already polluted, CBP noted.
“The Susquehanna River is already overloaded with nitrogen and sediment pollution that runs off of farms and suburban developments,” CBF Maryland Staff Scientist Gussie Maguire said in a statement. “While we have made tremendous progress reducing that pollution, development pressure continues to strain the health of our waterways.”
CBP noted various other concerns about the Cecil County project, which AquaCon acquired after its plans for a 1.2-million-square-foot aquaculture facility in Cambridge, Maryland, fell through after facing considerable pushback from the community.
One concern articulated by CBP was that the proposed farm property is upriver from the Susquehanna Flats underwater grass beds, which is an important local ecological site and a tourist draw for fishers of American and hickory shad, blueback herring, and alewife.
CBP said that nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment pollution could promote algae growth and create low-oxygen dead zones, “reducing water clarity that underwater grasses in the Susquehanna Flats need to survive.”
“The degradation of these underwater grass beds would be detrimental not only to recreational and commercial fishermen, but also to hunters since many species of waterfowl frequent the area for rest and feeding during their annual migrations,” CBP said in a release about the court challenge.
CBP also said it was concerned by the “troubling track record” of land-based salmon farms globally. The organization cited mass mortality events at Atlantic Sapphire and Sustainable Blue and an Atlantic Sapphire fire which produced a public water contamination warning in Denmark.
“Land-based salmon farms are relatively new and unpredictable. Knowing the prior failures of these types of plants, and that the Susquehanna River is already overloaded with nutrient pollution, MDE’s permit must protect against these risks," CBP Vice President for Litigation Paul Smail said.
AquaCon CEO Pål Haldorsen told SeafoodSource that, "AquaCon worked collaboratively with MDE to obtain a final discharge permit for the salmon aquaculture facility proposed for Bainbridge. We are confident in the technology selected and look forward to defending the permit with MDE against any challenge on its merits."
