Oslo, Norway-based aquaculture firm AquaCon has received a key permit for its planned salmon recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) facility in Federalsburg, Maryland, U.S.A.
AquaCon is planning multiple RAS facilities along Maryland's Eastern Shore, with an initial production volume target of 50,000 metric tons to be “phased in over six years,” according to the company. AquaCon has received investments from AKVA, Nutreco, and Israel Corp, and according to AquaCon Executive Chair Henrik Tangen the company has been working on a business plan for the facilities since late 2019.
AquaCon received a permit from the Maryland Department of the Environment allowing the company to discharge up to 2.3 million gallons of treated water a day into Marshyhope Creek, a tributary of the Naticoke River, the Southern Maryland Chronicle reported. AquaCon Executive Chairman and President Henrik Tangen said his company has spent more than a year working with the department on the permit, and said it is "significantly more stringent" in its requirements compared to other permits at other facilities.
While the permit has been approved, local environmental groups remain opposed to the discharge of water from the farm into the creek, which is the only waterway in the state that is known to harbor spawning sturgeon, which are federally classified as endangered on the U.S. East Coast. The environmental group Friends of the Nantichoke River said the Mashyhope creek has known populations of sturgeon, and that the discharge permit could put them in danger.
“During the years of 2014 to 2020, Maryland DNR’s biologists located, tagged and released thirty-two mature adult Atlantic sturgeon in Marshyhope Creek. In April 2012, Atlantic sturgeon were designated as ‘endangered’ by the National Marine Fisheries Service under the federal Endangered Species Act,” the group posted on its Facebook page. “Will this plant affect them? You betcha!”
Photo courtesy of AquaCon
