In extraordinary June 23 testimony in Waldo County Superior Court in Belfast, Nordic Aquafarms Chief Financial Officer Brenda Chandler stated that Nordic Aquafarms' position is that ownership of intertidal land in front of the Belfast waterfront property of Janet and Richard Eckrote is "unclear." 

 

This is extraordinary because Nordic needs the Eckrote intertidal land for its saltwater intake and effluent discharge pipes, and in order to apply for its Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) permit, Nordic had to establish "sufficient right, title and interest" (RTI) to all lands it needs for the $500 million industrial fish farm project it has proposed for Belfast. 

 

Chandler's sworn testimony contradicts Nordic's previous claim of said RTI, thus begging the question whether the DEP will require Nordic to re-establish RTI, something Nordic may be unable to do, given Chandler's startling testimony.

 

And will DEP then require Nordic to refile its entire permit application, the original of which ran to some 1,000 pages or more and which took months to process.  It's hard to imagine Nordic's investors would stand for such a bleeding out when Nordic is already more than two and a half years behind schedule in Belfast.

 

Stay tuned.