On April 13, the  Maine Department of Environmental Protection Compliance & Procedures Specialist Kevin Martin wrote an email to the Northport Village Corporation. The email referred to a series of wranglings over Nordic Aquafarms' recent request that DEP suspend its DEP permit. The email read, in part: "The (DEP) Commissioner’s options pursuant to statute and rule include revocation, suspension, and taking no action. The Department has not limited its determination to just revocation at this time."

In other words, DEP is considering revocation of Nordic's DEP permit. As well it should.

The DEP should never have allowed Nordic to apply for a permit in the first place. That's because any DEP permit applicant must show clear right, title and interest (RTI) for all needed lands, and Nordic never did that, as confirmed by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court February 26.

It's time for DEP to right the wrong it did to the people of Maine when it willfully ignored its own RTI requirement and entertained Nordic's permit application.

Enough of breaking rules, regulations and laws for Nordic. The RTI requirement exists for a reason: so permit applicants, such as Nordic, don't waste DEP's time and taxpayer money pursuing a permit they can't use because they don't own the needed land.

Enough of wasting DEP's time and taxpayer money. It's time for DEP to do the right thing. It's time for DEP to revoke the permit it shouldn't have granted in the first place.

Lawrence Reichard lives in Belfast