NEWS
PlanCo Takes Up Aquafarms’ EIR Commission hears hours of public comment By Elaine Weinreb
newsroom@northcoastjournal.com
Feeling tipsy? If you have a news tip, story idea or something you’d like to see covered, we’d love to hear from you! 707-442-1400, ext. 321 editor@northcoastjournal.com
8
The Humboldt County Planning Commission met July 28 to consider certifying Nordic Aquafarms’ Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) but, after three-anda-half hours of presentations and public comment, continued the meeting to Aug. 4. The hybrid meeting was plagued by technical difficulties, resulting at times in some commissioners being unable to speak, and requiring the postponement of the consent agenda. The Nordic Aqaufarms project seeks to build a large land-based facility on a currently contaminated industrial site owned by the Humboldt County Harbor, Conservation and Recreation District to raise Atlantic salmon. The project is described as a “recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) facility,” and includes the construction of five buildings, a 4.8-megawatt solar panel array and water intake and outfall facilities. Raised from eggs, the fish would not touch bay or ocean water at any point during their lives, swimming in indoor tanks and underwater pipes. Water would be filtered and sterilized by ultraviolet light both before it enters the facility and again before it leaves. The FEIR identifies many potential impacts, but states that they can all be reduced to insignificant levels. Many members of the audience did not agree with this conclusion, while others were less concerned with environmental issues and instead focused on the perceived economic benefits of the project. If the FEIR is accepted, Nordic Aquafarms would then seek a Coastal Development Permit. But that is just the first in a long series of agency approvals and permits needed before the project could break ground, with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the California Coastal Commission, the Regional Water Quality Control Board, the National Marine Fishery Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers all having a chance to
NORTH COAST JOURNAL • Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022 • northcoastjournal.com
Cleaning up the remnants of the old pulp mill is a part of plans to build a largescale fish farm on the Samoa Peninsula. Photo by Mark McKenna
weigh in and vet various aspects of the proposal. County planner Cade McNamara, helped by other staff, reviewed the project for the commissioners at the July 28 meeting. He said the facility would require approximately 2.5 million gallons per day of fresh, untreated water provided by the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District and sourced from the Mad River. The facility would also require approximately 10 million gallons of saltwater per day, which would be taken from Humboldt Bay. Approximately 12.5 million gallons of treated wastewater would be discharged daily via an existing ocean outfall pipe, which extends 1.5 miles offshore. Although two other facilities use the outfall pipe, it still has plenty of unused capacity, McNamara said. The site, zoned as Industrial and Coastal Dependent, is currently classified as a “brownfield,” meaning the area is polluted, and must be remediated before it can support any projects. Nordic intends to do this clean-up before it begins any further work on the project, demolishing existing buildings, and removing asbestos and lead from the soil. There are some environmentally sensitive habitat areas on or near the site, McNamara said. The “dune mat,” which consists of plants and animals mostly native to the area, is protected as part of the project design, and will be fenced off. Nordic must also compensate for damage to the longfin smelt, a small fish that is eaten by other aquatic animals, by building new habitat for it. A rare plant, the darkeyed gilia, must be replaced elsewhere at a ratio of three to one. To avoid tsunami
damage, tanks would be designed to withstand a “2,500-year hazard event,” and back-up generators will be elevated above the predicted wave height. However, the most controversial item in the FEIR is the project’s energy use, which is estimated to be 195 gigawatt hours per year at full build-out. (A gigawatt hour is one million kilowatt hours.) This is the approximate equivalent of the energy use of the entire cities of Eureka and Fortuna combined. Planning Director John Ford recommended approval of the project because it is a coastal dependent industrial use, conforms to the Humboldt Bay Area Plan, involves brownfield cleanup and, according to the FEIR, has minimized all environmental impacts to less than significant levels. The next presentation was given by Larry Oetker, executive director of the Harbor District. Oetker pointed out that state law gives the district equal standing to that of any county government, and it has its own list of permits and consultations when deciding whether to approve a project. Oetker had nothing but praise for the project. “This is some of the most vacant, under-utilized, contaminated, blighted pieces of property that we have in Humboldt County,” he said. “We’ve identified the clean, green, modern industries that are right for our community: wood products, aquaculture, broadband and offshore wind.” Nordic’s project, Oetker said, fits nicely into an array of other ongoing and planned improvements to the peninsula, including the introduction of broadband
