Bricks and Mortars

An open letter to the Belfast Planning Board: As members of the Belfast Planning Board, you are facing a decision with grave implications for Belfast, Northport and indeed the entire state of Maine: whether to allow Nordic Aquafarms to build a massive industrial fish farm in Belfast. The City of Belfast website states: “The Planning and Codes Department performs a variety of services intended to protect, maintain, and develop an attractive, safe, and healthy environment.” Nordic Aquafarms’ proposed project does none of this. The Nordic project would daily discharge into Belfast Bay 7.7 million gallons of warm effluent, more than 100 pounds of phosphorous and 1,600 pound of nitrogen, all of which threaten algae blooms and popular recreation sites. This threatens tourism, fisheries, and those industries’ jobs. The Gulf of Maine is warming faster than any other marine body of water in the world. Species, including the economically vital lobster, are migrating north. It would be irre

An open letter to the Belfast Planning Board: As members of the Belfast Planning Board, you are facing a decision with grave implications for Belfast, Northport and indeed the entire state of Maine: whether to allow Nordic Aquafarms to build a massive industrial fish farm in Belfast. The City of Belfast website states: “The Planning and Codes Department performs a variety of services intended to protect, maintain, and develop an attractive, safe, and healthy environment.” Nordic Aquafarms’ proposed project does none of this. The Nordic project would daily discharge into Belfast Bay 7.7 million gallons of warm effluent, more than 100 pounds of phosphorous and 1,600 pound of nitrogen, all of which threaten algae blooms and popular recreation sites. This threatens tourism, fisheries, and those industries’ jobs. The Gulf of Maine is warming faster than any other marine body of water in the world. Species, including the economically vital lobster, are migrating north. It would be