AquaBounty Technologies announced on 4 October that it has been awarded a permit for water usage related to its planned salmon recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) in Pioneer, Ohio, U.S.A.
Awarded by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Water Resources, the new withdrawal and consumptive use permit will allow the company to withdraw water for use in its RAS. According to AquaBounty, the permit will allow it to withdraw up to 5.25 million gallons per day.
AquaBounty had already received permitting for a different wellfield earlier in the year. That permit, granted on 14 March, 2022, would allow the company to withdraw three million gallons of water per day. The company said that it plans to relinquish that permit after receiving the new one.
“We are very pleased with ODNR’s decision to issue our water withdrawal and consumptive use permit. We submitted a detailed application and provided thoughtful responses to 263 comments from the community that were carefully reviewed,” AquaBounty President and CEO Sylvia Wulf said.
Many of those 263 comments are in opposition to the proposed water withdrawal, including letters from organizations like the Maumee Watershed Alliance. Maumee Watershed Alliance Vice President Dorothy Hagan requested that the proposal be delayed until a U.S. Geological Survey study of the aquifer AquaBounty plans to draw from is completed. Other letters came from residents in the area drawing water from wells, who fear AquaBounty's water use will end up drying up their sources of drinking water.
“This sole source water aquifer for nine counties needs to be protected,” Kathryn Natzke, a resident of nearby Pittsford, Michigan, wrote.
The new permit is dependent and expressly conditioned on AquaBounty earning another permit, a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit, from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, according to the ODNR. The permit will also require AquaBounty submit a groundwater monitoring plan for review and approval at least six months prior to withdrawing water.
Wulf said her company worked to address many of the community's concerns.
“AquaBounty understands the importance of being a good neighbor and is committed to our role in providing economic support to Pioneer and Williams County,” she said. “Based on facts developed through extensive scientific investigation, analysis, testing, modeling, and review by experts and regulatory agencies, we continue to demonstrate our commitment to addressing the concerns of the local community.”
AquaBounty announced its selection of Pioneer, Ohio in July 2021, and broke ground on the new facility in April 2022. The farm is part of the company’s ambitious plan to build a new farm every two years, and AquaBounty CFO David Frank said the company plans to announce a site before the Ohio project is finished.
“Our plan is, before the Ohio farm is finished being constructed, we will already know where our next farm is going to be, and we will have started the preliminary due diligence on the site,” he said.
Photo courtesy of AquaBounty Technologies
