Maine’s top court has rejected appeals that challenged the permits for a proposed fish farm in Jonesport, clearing the way for the multimillion project to move forward.
Two groups that opposed Kingfish Maine’s efforts to build a 94-acre, land-based fish farm overlooking Chandler Bay argued in court that the state erred in approving permits for the installation of water inflow and outflow pipes in the bay.
Opponents said state environmental regulators, as part of their approval of the project under the Natural Resources Protection Act, did not do enough to assess the impacts that the discharge of treated wastewater would have on wildlife in the bay.
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court dismissed the opponents’ arguments Thursday, saying the regulators’ approval of allowing the discharge of treated wastewater into the bay was consistent with the requirements of state law.
Opposition to the project by some local fishermen and property owners on Roque Island have shadowed the proposal from the Netherlands-based company since it first was floated in the fall of 2019.
Concerns about the environmental impact of the project have been raised with the town’s Planning Board, the state Department of Environmental Protection, and the Board of Environmental Protection, and were presented in both Superior Court and the state’s Business and Consumer Court before the state’s top court took up the case last year.
“This has been a multi-year battle with a small group of opponents which worked to stop our project. We are extremely pleased that this final appeal is complete,” Kingfish Co. CEO Vincent Erenst said. “Now, with the appeals behind us, the project timeline will be determined by current economic and financial conditions, which we are assessing at this time.”
Elizabeth Boepple, a lawyer who represented the opponents, said that they think the Law Court erred in its decision. She said the court ruling allows state environmental regulators to consider only the impact the work of installing the pipes will have on wildlife in the bay, but that there is precedent for the state considering the impact the resulting water exchange will have after the pipes are installed — which her clients argued for.
“We think the Law Court got this wrong,” she said.
Boepple said her clients also have encouraged Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Melanie Loyzim to reconsider the state’s permits for the pipes, which is allowed under the commissioner’s discretionary authority, because of a change of circumstances. Boepple said recent testing of the bay suggests that it should have a higher water classification than the standard that was used during the permitting process.
“Sufficient testing hadn’t been done on Chandler Bay’s water quality,” she said.
As for court appeals, Boepple said the only option left for her clients would be to take their arguments to federal court, but she has not discussed that possibility with them.
When the project was first proposed, Kingfish Maine estimated the cost of building out the project would be $110 million, but that cost likely would be higher now, given the lingering impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on construction expenses and the projected impact of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on imports from most of the rest of the world.
If the project moves forward, Kingfish Maine has said it would aim to grow between 6,000 and 8,000 metric tons, or around 13 million pounds, of yellowtail at the Jonesport site each year. Yellowtail, or seriola lalandi, often is identified as hamachi on sushi menus and has proven to be one of the most viable species, both commercially and biologically, for land-based aquaculture operations.