We are pleased to announce that FHLH has retained the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) to investigate and recommend improvements in Maine’s process for regulating land-based, commercial-scale aquaculture projects. The centerpiece of the 15-month study is a White Paper highlighting a suite of “best practices” drawn from successful land-based projects and the regulatory requirements they met.

Yesterday, Waldo County Superior Court Justice Robert Murray formally accepted three negotiated agreements between parties in the 2019 case against Nordic Aquafarms. The agreement – or “stipulations” – confirm that the City of Belfast cannot ignore the legal process of amending or terminating a conservation easement.

Earlier today, Business and Consumer Court Justice Michaela Murphy denied all counts in a Rule 80C appeal filed by six opponents of Nordic Aquafarms.

A Feb. 18th brief from the Office of the Public Advocate (OPA) and Efficiency Maine Trust (EMT) recommends that Maine’s Public Utility Commission (PUC) deny the request from Central Maine Power (CMP) that the power company be allowed to beef up the section of its grid that would feed the fish-raising factory proposed by Nordic Aquafarms, Inc.

Earlier today the City of Belfast acknowledged that it cannot use its powers of eminent domain to sidestep the terms of an existing conservation easement. The City agreed to the Attorney General’s (AG) stipulation that the only way to amend or terminate a conservation easement is through the state’s conservation easement statute.

“Nordic’s claim that the decision…is a “final judgment” is not accurate.” – Kim Ervin Tucker

This afternoon the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) intervened on behalf of Jeffrey Mabee and Judith Grace, landowners defending their property rights against an effort by the City of Belfast to condemn the couple’s conservation easement with The Friends of Harriet L. Hartley Conservation Area (HLH). 

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 game is on.  Attorneys filed pre-trial briefs on Wednesday, June 16th, for the June 22nd opening of the trial pitting Jeffrey Mabee and Judith Grace (Mabee-Grace) against Nordic Aquafarms, Inc. (NAF).  Mabee and Grace are defending their “title, right, and interest” in an intertidal zone that Nordic must invade to build the saltwater intake and wastewater discharge pipelines for a land-based salmon-raising factory. 

President Sid Block condemned the spray-painting of graffiti on the door and window of Nordic Aquafarms’ Main Street office in Belfast last Sunday. 

Documents delivered to the Friends of Harriet L. Hartley (HLH) last month show DEP officials were pressured to drop a January 2019 demand that Nordic Aquafarms (NAF) submit more proof of the company’s right to lay pipelines through a disputed intertidal zone.  

On Friday, Feb. 26th, HLH attorney Kim Ervin Tucker filed a 20-page argument in Waldo County Superior Court that destroyed every defense raised by Nordic Aquafarms (NAF) in its application for a submerged lands lease. 

In a Friday, Dec. 18th filing to Waldo County Superior Court, attorneys for Belfast landowners Jeffrey Mabee and Judith Grace laid out a three-pronged attack on the Maine Bureau of Environmental Protection (BEP) Nov. 19th rules granting Nordic Aquafarms (NAF) four permits needed to construct its fish-raising factory. 

Lawyers for embattled landowners, Jeffrey Mabee and Judith Grace, struck back at strongarm tactics of Nordic Aquafarms (NAF) with a December 5th filing in Waldo County Superior Court that points out NAF’s underlying goal is to jack up the cost of Jeffrey and Judith’s defense.

A July 7th decision by Maine’s Supreme Judicial Court has the potential to halt any further consideration of Nordic Aquafarms’ (NAF) permit applications before the Board of Environmental Protection (BEP)…and all other local and State permitting agencies.

Last Friday afternoon, Maine Superior Court judge, Robert Murray, handed down four rulings that clear the way for a decision on who owns the intertidal zone through which Nordic Aquafarms, Inc. (NAF) wants to construct its saltwater intake and wastewater discharge pipes. 

Thursday, May 7th, Maine’s Board of Environmental Protection (BEP) issued its 16th Procedural Order in the matter of Nordic Aquafarms (NAF) permit applications, rejecting arguments that the dredging and removal of bay bottom sediments known to contain methylated mercury justifies additional precautions.

In an April 16th, 9:00 a.m. teleconference call open to the public, four BEP Commissioners heard arguments for and against a motion to dismiss Nordic Aquafarms, Inc. (NAF) pending permit applications, voted not to hold a formal adjudicatory hearing on the question of “TRI” -- Title, Right, or Interest – and denied a motion to dismiss the company’s pending permit applications based on NAF’s lack of TRI.

With the latest wave of public interest in the Nordic Aquafarms permit applications receding, now is a good time to spend an evening looking at the bigger picture of sustainable economies and communities around the Penobscot Bay. On Thursday, March 5th, spend a thoughtful evening at “Living in the Web of Life,” a 2-panel public forum exploring the connections that humans share among themselves, with other creatures, and the environment.