On the surface the Belfast fish factory looks like a business proposal that might be in Maine's best interest.  Under the surface it is an obvious disaster that has found a place to happen.  If it can get financing, which is doubtful, a monster factory will be built at the expense of a beautiful forest; the carbon release of construction and operation will be an insult to the whole world. 

The case that the science is ready for this feedlot is “wishful thinking” at best. Salmon retails for $7.99 at Hannaford every other week; an RAS fish feedlot can't even pay the power bill at that price. The jobs promised, for which we have no workers, are minimum wage and won't even enable the workers to buy a house in Belfast. This factory loads CO2 pollution and noise into our environment and excess nitrogen (and anything else they can’t filter) into our bay; the world famous Penobscot Bay.  

Belfast is no longer the chicken capital of the east; we aren't a mill town anymore.  We just got voted the best place to live in Maine and we want to build an industrial monster next to one of the best river trails in the state?  There is some presumption coming from this fish group that we don't really know who we are in Belfast and we will all be so proud of this new cutting edge factory built by Norway's finest scientists?  This is insane. 

Belfast is an amazingly great place as it is, we are growing extremely fast already, real estate prices are through the roof because people really want to live here, as it is; not a town trying to emulate  Linden, New Jersey.  Belfast knows exactly who it is; strong support for local farmers and businesses and farm markets, wonderful coop, great downtown with wonderful stores and restaurants; all perched on a beautiful piece of Penobscot Bay.  

Four years ago this factory might have made some sense; now it is a repudiation of everything good that has happened and is happening  in our town.

Please, somebody, bring some sanity and sobriety to this discussion.  Nothing about this factory is actually good for Belfast, or Maine.  Our state is already on the cutting edge of aquaculture and most of it works with nature, not against it.  Adding eight 60-foot smokestacks to our town, and the noise, and the trucks is lunacy. 

Mainers have always known who we are; that's why the rest of the world loves us and cherishes this part of the world.  We need high speed internet for all, we need roads and bridges improved, we don’t need a new source of pollution that threatens the things we, and our visitors, actually cherish.

Let’s not shoot the horse that pulls the wagon.
 

Mark Salwasser lives in Belfast