MILLINOCKET, Maine — In the quest to establish land-based fish farms in Maine, going inland may offer the path of least resistance.
A plan to build a salmon farm at the site of the former Great Northern Paper in Millinocket is moving forward after it cleared a key regulatory hurdle.
CEO Marianne Naess announced Monday that Great Northern Salmon, formerly known as Katahdin Salmon, received a discharge permit and that the appeals period ended roughly a week ago.
“Getting past that threshold was very important for the company,” Naess said.
If completed, Naess estimates the farm would produce around 22 million pounds of salmon per year.
To accomplish this, the operation would release about 1.4 million gallons of treated production discharge each day into Millinocket Stream, which empties into the Penobscot River.
Concern over the impacts of releasing discharge has been a key sticking point in other fish farm proposals in Maine, most notably Nordic Aquafarms’ planned facility in Belfast, which environmental groups so far have effectively stalled through litigation.
Naess, who used to hold a senior role at Nordic, said the dynamics are at play in Millinocket are different.
“We learned some lessons in that project,” Naess explained.
For one thing, the proposed operation in Millinocket is smaller, she said.
“We also implemented even higher threshold water treatments,” Neuss added.
Another feature distinguishing the two projects is the economic landscape in the towns each would be located.
“Millinocket is not Belfast,” Jessica Masse, a board member of Our Katahdin, said.
Our Katahdin owns the site of the former Great Northern Paper mill.
Masse said there is an excitement about the possibility of bringing industry back to an area that was once a hub of the paper industry.
Naess estimates the fish farm would create about 70 to 80 new full-time jobs, not including construction positions, and about half of these jobs would require a college degree or equivalent experience.
“It will change the course of economic development in this town,” Masse said. “I think it’s the inflection point for a great future for this town.”
Project leaders say construction on the Great Northern Salmon facility could begin as soon as the summer of 2025.