Mudflat defenders to Maine BEP: “See you in court.”
Yesterday, opponents of the Nordic Aquafarms, Inc. (NAF) plan for a fish factory in Belfast filed their briefs in a Rule 80C challenge to every permit issued to Nordic by Maine’s Board of Environmental Protection (BEP)
The 32-page brief filed by embattled landowners Jeffrey Mabee and Judith Grace, the Friends of Harriet L. Hartley Conservation Area (HLH), and the Maine Lobstering Union (MLU) focuses on Nordic’s lack of standing to obtain or use the permits and licenses granted by BEP. It also charges that BEP and the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) violated various state statutes by failing to require NAF to test the sediments it proposes to dig up and dispose of while building three pipelines into Penobscot Bay.
On or before July 16, 2021, the company expressly relinquished and conveyed to the City of Belfast all the right, title, and interest NAF had – if any – in the upland property the intertidal land below it. Our brief points out that the BEP-issued permits are worthless because the alleged “right, title, and interest” that Nordic claimed when it applied for them no longer exists – indeed, never existed at all. [Copies are available from Andy Stevenson, the HLH press contact.]
In a related filing, Upstream Watch (UW) submitted a 67-page brief detailing the many violations of the federal Clean Water Act and statutory requirements in Maine state law in the BEP analysis of this project and permitting determinations – including in the arbitrary manner in which BEP conducted the NAF permit process.
Also on August 25, 2021, an order was entered transferring this case from Waldo County Superior Court to the Business and Consumer Docket for consideration of a judge from that Court. HLH and UW supported this transfer. Oral arguments on the HLH motion to amend its 80C Petition against BEP and add independent claims of political pressure and interference in the permitting process by Mills Administration political appointees and various political influence peddlers – including Gov. Mills’ brother, Peter – were continued, at our request, until after the case is transferred to the new court. In our motion we charge that these outsiders tilted the regulatory playing field in Nordic’s favor.
Earlier on August 12, 2021, the Belfast city council voted to use eminent domain to take Mabee-Grace and HLH property rights to the mudflats. Attorneys for Mabee-Grace, HLH, and UW filed suit against Belfast on August 16th challenging this improper use of eminent domain – primarily to benefit Nordic – on constitutional and statutory grounds. The Waldo County Registry of Deeds (WCRD) was notified that afternoon. Minutes later, Belfast filed its own “notice of taking” with WCRD…ignoring the mandatory process for terminating a conservation easement. On August 19th the Waldo County Sheriff’s office served that complaint on the City.