View of the Great Northern Salmon site in Millinocket, Maine, where pre-construction work is about to begin.
Photo: Great Northern Salmon.
After rebranding - it was formerly Katahdin Salmon - and securing critical permits in May, Great Northern Salmon (GNS) has announced it will begin site preparation for its proposed facility in Millinocket, Maine, in mid-September 2024, as scheduled.
"The work entails decanting the water and removing settlement materials in the lagoon, the location of GNS's future land-based RAS salmon farm," explained Marianne Naess, CEO of GNS. As she told WeAreAquaculture in an interview, from her view, it is essential to deliver on the plans you announce.
"Our close collaboration with the site owner and economic development partner, Our Katahdin, has made it possible to start this work on schedule and progress with the development of our RAS facility," Naess commented now.
For pre-construction development, Great Northern Salmon is, from the outset, working closely with the site owner, Our Katahdin. The GNS partner is a volunteer-driven non-profit organization founded to support community and economic development in the Katahdin region of Maine.
The joint project has also received financial support from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD), the Northern Borders Regional Commission (NBRC), the Eastern Maine Development Corporation (EMDC) and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Back at the end of winter, a final test of the lagoon confirmed that there was no contamination of concern, so in the spring Great Northern Salmon issued a request for proposals for rehabilitation of the site. As Marianne Naess explained at the time, the remediation involves emptying the large artificial lagoon they are building inside.
The projected schedule for pre-construction work is ten months. Great Northern Salmon has contracted Republic Services to execute the project, with Maine-based Sevee & Maher as its primary engineering partner. When ready, the site will be the future production location for GNS's first land-based RAS salmon farm.
"Remediation and reuse of the former settlement lagoons on the One North industrial campus is an important milestone for GNS and the local community," said Steve Sanders, One North's Director of Mill Site Development. "It is a clear, tangible signal to our partners and supporters that this project is a step towards new investment and renewed industry in our region."
GNS' Millinocket facility will be located on a 1400-acre property formerly owned by the Great Northern Paper Company, which permanently closed in 2008 after more than a century of history. When it opened in 1900, it was the largest paper mill in the world, and the first to have an on-site hydroelectric generation and distribution facility.
So when Xcelerate Aqua – the group behind GNS - was looking for sites for its RAS salmon project, it found in Millinocket not only a location with an abundance of clean, cold water but a pre-excavated, pollution-free site that it could use with an outfall pipe and power infrastructure. The site also had 100% renewable energy and permits from the time when the plant was a pulp mill.
The successful completion of the project will now provide GNS with a fully construction-ready site that will reduce construction time by more than six months and eliminate the risks associated with issues such as excavation, blasting, etc. In addition, geotechnical work on site has also confirmed the glacial till substrate will support the facility's weight.
"We want to thank Our Katahdin and its partners for their commitment to the success of this project and for creating the conditions that have helped us to reach this milestone," said Naess. "Local support is paramount for succeeding in this sector in the U.S. today," she added.
When at full production capacity, the project will create 80 full-time local jobs. GNS is now working on closing Series A fundraising and will begin detailed design, scheduling, and final estimating of the facility this fall. The planned farm will produce 10,000 metric tons of Atlantic salmon to be supplied fresh to the northeastern U.S.