Jonesport resident Holly O’Neal is concerned a proposed large-scale fish farm will degrade what she believes is Washington County’s biggest asset — its water quality.
That’s why she and others recently started asking questions about Kingfish Maine’s proposal to build a land-based aquaculture system to grow yellowtail kingfish.
“There’s been very little questioning, very little resistance to Kingfish until recently,” said O’Neal, who works the stern on her boyfriend Kelton Beal’s lobster boat. “There’s so many environmental and economic concerns I can’t even begin to say them all.”
Among the concerns are how much nitrogen will end up in Chandler Bay, how treated discharge will affect PH levels, where fish waste will end up and whether air quality will be impacted, O’Neal said.
The Jonesport Planning Board met Tuesday to compile a list of questions for the town attorney about whether the town can require Kingfish to pay for an environmental impact study, how town ordinances can be applied and whether the state considered potential negative economic impacts of the project.
Attorney Kim Ervin Tucker, who represents the Maine Lobstering Union in several cases opposing a similar land-based aquaculture project in Belfast, told the Jonesport officials they play a powerful role in deciding the fate of the project.
“You can say no,” she said. “They can’t build.”
Prior to the meeting, Kingfish spokeswoman Dianna Fletcher said Kingfish will meet with community members Monday to answer questions and that they’ve spent two years working to receive state permits for site development, natural resources protection and pollutant discharge.
“As per the state’s requirements for receiving a (discharge) permit, the levels of nitrogen as well as the PH of our effluent must be protective of the water quality in Chandler Bay,” she said in an email. “As a marine fish facility, we draw our water from Chandler Bay. We cannot pick up and move the farm, so it is critical to our success that the water quality and habitat of the bay is maintained.”
Until last month, it seemed Kingfish Maine was close to beginning construction of its facility on 93 acres on Dun Garvan Road in Jonesport. The company proposes to build structures that would total about 573,500 sq. ft. on mostly vacant land, in addition to residential units for staff, a store and an information center.
The project is estimated to cost $110 million and once the facility is up and running, it is projected to have a statewide economic impact of $28 million per year and 129 full-and-part time jobs, with $8.4 million in labor income in 2023.
At an October meeting of the planning board, the company answered a few questions and indicated they hoped to break ground in late December or early this year. But when the company returned to the board in December, 30-40 people showed up, nearly all of them with concerns about the project, said local high school science teacher Richard Aishton.
“I think what has happened is there has been an awakening of the townspeople now and they are starting to wonder what the potential impacts are,” he said.
The factory would discharge up to about 29 million gallons per day of treated wastewater into Chandler Bay, according to its state permits. In June, the DEP issued a five-year permit to allow the wastewater discharge, finding that it would not lower water quality below its current classification.
DEP’s Cindy Dionne, who works in wastewater licensing, said she’s fielded calls from Jonesport residents who misunderstand the state’s regulations with regard to the permissible levels of nitrogen discharge. She said if a company proposes to go above a 20% threshold, it triggers additional review. The company will be required to monitor the area and report results back to DEP marine biologists each year to ensure Chandler Bay continues to have the same water quality classification, she said.
A forest engineer with an advanced degree in environmental science, Aishton said the area’s reliance on lobster fishing – not to mention harvesting scallops, mussels and clams – should be the primary driver for decisions made about the project. He said if the project moves forward, there should be enhanced “monitoring and remediation” to protect critical wildlife habitat in the area.
Planning Board Chairman Frank Smith said he’s concerned that the state didn’t consider whether the fish farm will devalue local properties or harm legacy fishing industries. He asked Tucker whether courts are likely to overturn the board’s decision if a strong majority of them reject the project.
“I would like to state as a board it’s our job to do what is best for the town, not necessarily the state,” he said. “We are the town’s board.”
Tucker, who said she could not give the town legal advice because of her work with the lobstering union, said the town needs to demonstrate that the company cannot meet town standards.
“(The courts) give a great deal of deference to the local board,” she said.
The Jonesport project is one of four large fish farms proposed or approved in Maine in recent years. The first to get full approval – located in Bucksport on a former paper mill site – has yet to break ground. Whole Oceans plans to build a land-based salmon farm there.
In Belfast, Nordic Aquafarms also plans to build a land-based salmon farm, although local opposition has led to lawsuits that seek to prevent it from being built.
Then in the Gouldsboro/Bar Harbor area, American Aquafarms is proposing to put two closed-net pen systems in Frenchman Bay to raise salmon, with a processing plant in Gouldsboro. The company is awaiting state permits and opponents have vowed to fight the project.
In mid-November, Gouldsboro residents approved a six-month moratorium on aquaculture development to give the town time to update its ordinances.
The Sierra Club is monitoring all of the large-scale farm proposals, said Matt Cannon, campaign and policy associate director for the Sierra Club of Maine. The club recently filed an appeal of the DEP’s site location and natural resources protection act permits for the Jonesport project.
“Many of these projects haven’t had enough planning and visualizing overall,” he said.
He said the Sierra Club supports small-scale aquaculture, but officials worry that the large-scale fish farms are similar to Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations often opposed by environmentalists.
“These are all kind of new systems,” he said. “Maine is at the forefront. That’s part of our questioning.”
Fletcher, the Kingfish spokeswoman, said for more than two years, the company has “received an outpouring of support from the Jonesport community” and that recent questions are coming from “a small group within the town.” She said the company is already producing yellowtail kingfish in the Netherlands, where it operates in a “marine nature reserve, part of a network of core breeding and resting sites for rare and threatened species across the European Union.”
“It is imperative to our own success in Jonesport that we maintain the quality of Chandler Bay,” she wrote. “We remain committed to Jonesport and its future.”
The meeting with community members is set for 6 p.m. Monday at the Jonesport fire station.
From O’Neal’s perspective, even major changes to the project, such as modifying the system so it does not discharge treated water back into the bay, won’t be enough to win her support.
“Kingfish is not showing my community the respect it deserves,” she said.