AquaCon hits snag in the development of its RAS farm in Cambridge, Maryland

Oslo, Norway-based aquaculture firm AquaCon ran into a snag last week in its ongoing effort to build a 1.2 million-square-foot aquaculture facility in Cambridge, Maryland, U.S.A., when the local zoning board denied special exceptions that would have been the first step toward allowing construction of the facility.

After a 3.5-hour meeting that included a lengthy closed-door session, the Dorchester County Board of Appeals denied AquaCon Maryland LLC a special zoning exception that would have allowed it to build a massive indoor hatchery and fish grow-out facility to produce 15,000 metric tons of salmon annually on a defunct golf course bordering the Choptank River.

While board members and citizens praised the proposed farm as environmentally conscious technologically advanced, many were concerned that the industrial aquaculture would be out of place in the largely rural county and that wastewater discharges would affect the water quality of the Choptank River.

The proposed state-of-the-art Atlantic salmon growing facility would use groundwater and stormwater for the facility’s operation, as well as a 2.3-million gallon daily exchange of treated water with the Choptank River. The project would send 70,000 to 80,000 gallons of wastewater by existing sewer lines to Cambridge’s wastewater plant, according to reports.

At the meeting, Bob Rauch, an engineer working with AquaCon, emphasized that the company fully intended to follow every guideline issued by the Maryland Department of the Environment.

“Our desire is to take it out and put it back in the same condition,” Rauch said of the water from the Choptank River, according to the Dorchester Star. “The Norwegians are totally green, that’s their culture. There’s no presumption that we are going to do something that isn’t permitted.”

AquaCon's proposed facility is one of two the company is working on in the state, with another USD 300 million (EUR 253 million) facility already beginning to move forward in Federalsburg, a small town in Caroline County on a tributary of the Nanticoke River. The company has also considered two other sites in Cambridge and Denton, also in Caroline County.

Ryan Showalter, an Easton lawyer representing AquaCon, said it is pursuing multiple sites at the same time with the intent to start construction next year on whichever one first receives regulatory approvals, according to Patch.

Showalter said the company is likely to shift its efforts to another location instead of trying to win over the board members of Dorchester County.