Maryland
Opinion: AquaCon’s Proposed Industrial Salmon Farm Represents a Major Environmental Risk for Maryland – Maryland Matters
![Opinion: AquaCon’s Proposed Industrial Salmon Farm Represents a Major Environmental Risk for Maryland – Maryland Matters Opinion: AquaCon’s Proposed Industrial Salmon Farm Represents a Major Environmental Risk for Maryland – Maryland Matters](https://s41615.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/AdobeStock_266925982-scaled.jpeg)
By Alan Girard, Japanese Shore director of the Chesapeake Bay Basis;
Bradley Stevens, professor emeritus of marine science on the College of Maryland Japanese Shore;
David Secor, professor on the College of Maryland Heart for Environmental Science Chesapeake Organic Laboratory;
Fred Pomeroy, president of Dorchester Residents for Deliberate Development;
Jay Martin, president of Pals of the Nanticoke River;
Judith Stribling, college emerita at Salisbury College;
Madeleine Adams, president of Wicomico Environmental Belief;
Matt Pluta, director of riverkeeper applications for ShoreRivers; and
Nick Carter, retired fisheries biologist on the Maryland Division of Pure Sources.
The small but critically necessary Marshyhope Creek on Maryland’s Japanese Shore has been focused for a large salmon farming facility that poses a severe menace to its water high quality and its habitats. The state’s preliminary try to allow AquaCon’s large Federalsburg facility is grossly poor.
The beginning-up Norwegian firm’s guarantees about sustainable indoor salmon farming and the financial advantages it might deliver to Maryland haven’t panned out elsewhere on this business.
As an alternative, the nascent indoor salmon farming business has been tormented by mass die-offs of fish, lackluster shopper help, and in a single case a catastrophic fireplace that destroyed an industrial salmon manufacturing facility in Demark.
Regardless of the business’s issues, AquaCon is now proposing a 25-acre indoor salmon farm close to Federalsburg, and a draft discharge allow for it has been issued by the Maryland Division of the Atmosphere (MDE). As scientists and environmental advocates who’ve reviewed the proposed allow, we discover it to be regarding and poor. If AquaCon is allowed to function below this allow, there are quite a few dangers to Japanese Shore ecosystems and the Chesapeake Bay.
Anybody involved with this proposal ought to attend the in-person public listening to 5 to eight p.m. on Wednesday at Federalsburg City Corridor. MDE plans to just accept written feedback till shut of enterprise Oct. 17.
AquaCon is proposing to provide about 35 million kilos of salmon per yr at this facility in a collection of tanks. Inside these tanks, the water could be filtered and recycled to restrict the wastewater that leaves the plant.
But AquaCon nonetheless proposes to dump 2.3 million gallons of wastewater into Marshyhope Creek every day. This quantity of polluted water may overwhelm the slender and principally shallow tidal creek.
Federally and state designated as important habitat, the Marshyhope is the smallest identified river in the USA that’s residence to the endangered Atlantic sturgeon. It’s additionally the one river in Maryland the place the species is thought to spawn. MDE has not addressed considerations expressed by Maryland’s Division of Pure Sources and scientists from the College of Maryland Heart for Environmental Science about how the air pollution and coldwater discharges from the economic salmon farm would have an effect on Atlantic sturgeon.
This venture represents the primary experiment of its variety the place fecal wastes, properly exceeding these of the whole human inhabitants of Caroline County, are self-contained below a single roof.
Neither AquaCon nor MDE has offered assurances that the proposed know-how, which has solely been examined in small manufacturing items, will work to filter the feces from thousands and thousands of enormous salmon grown in tanks. Maryland’s Japanese Shore already faces a extreme overabundance of animal processing wastes.
Within the U.S., there’s just one industrial salmon farm in operation that’s of the same scale as what’s being proposed by AquaCon — a plant in Miami operated by Atlantic Sapphire. That plant, which first started producing salmon in 2020, suffered mass die-offs of salmon in 2020 and 2021 that killed greater than 600,000 fish — equal to about 1,300 cattle being wasted. In September 2021, Atlantic Sapphire’s pilot plant in Demark, the place it was testing know-how to boost salmon indoors caught fireplace and destroyed the ability. The fireplace created a cloud of smoke that coated neighboring communities and brought about a close-by waterway to show crimson. Authorities warned residents within the space to not enter the water on account of extreme quantities of iron chloride spilling into the water subsequent to the plant.
Regardless of these catastrophic occasions, MDE’s proposed allow doesn’t deal with what AquaCon could be required to do within the occasion of lack of energy, water provide interruptions, fish die-offs, debilitating storms, or devastating fireplace. Even when AquaCon have been required to acquire a bond to cowl operational failures, the environmental dangers are too excessive to be mitigated by this sort of compensation.
The Marshyhope is already impaired by major Bay pollution equivalent to nitrogen and phosphorus, but MDE’s allow doesn’t element how the plant may guarantee it doesn’t exceed the bounds the company units for these pollution.
The allow doesn’t deal with how stormwater runoff could be handled from the plant, which might be one of many largest buildings within the state — concerning the measurement of six Tremendous Walmarts. An inch of rainfall on this facility may produce as much as 750,000 gallons of runoff, which might create flooding and air pollution dangers.
AquaCon can also be proposing to withdraw 2.3 million gallons of water per day from underground aquifers, but MDE has failed to deal with whether or not groundwater provides and present makes use of can accommodate this degree of withdrawal, or may trigger close by land to sink, as has occurred elsewhere.
What MDE did do is evaluate this new allow with one issued in Belfast, Maine for a distinct indoor salmon farm. Nevertheless, the comparability is lower than apt. In Maine, the ability would drain into Penobscot Bay, a a lot bigger, deeper, and colder physique of water, whereas the Marshyhope on the proposed discharge location is simply about 100 toes large and wadable at low tide. And whereas Maine did grant a discharge allow for the ability, the plant has not been constructed so there’s no technique to inform if the allow is acceptable or being met.
The indoor-raised salmon business has struggled with an off-taste on account of excessive ranges of the compound geosmin being current within the salmon tanks. In Maryland, AquaCon is proposing to “purge” that geosmin from their fish straight into the Marshyhope. The results of doing that to the fish already dwelling on this delicate waterway — from temperature and salinity imbalances, to chemical contamination, to extreme nutrient hundreds — are principally unknown.
Taken collectively, the dangers posed by this speculative enterprise proposition are nice. If Maryland is de facto thinking about enabling farm raised salmon manufacturing on the Shore, state regulators must do extra to guard surrounding communities, assure air pollution in native waterways gained’t worsen, and discover a website that doesn’t instantly threaten the endangered Atlantic sturgeon.
![](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/np-logo.png)
Maryland
Michigan State football opens as sizable underdog vs Maryland
![Michigan State football opens as sizable underdog vs Maryland Michigan State football opens as sizable underdog vs Maryland](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_4256,h_2394,x_0,y_0/c_fill,w_1440,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/ImagnImages/mmsport/137/01j6q8yb7r3y04b36mbn.jpg)
Who’s ready for Big Ten play to begin? In all honesty, I am not. I really wish Michigan State football had more tune-up games after seeing them struggle against Florida Atlantic and only win 16-10. But unfortunately, that is not how the schedule unfolds for Michigan State this season.
The Spartans will hit the road for an early Big Ten game as they face Maryland on Saturday at 3:30 pm. Going into the season I thought Michigan State and the Terps were on a pretty level playing field, but after seeing both teams play week one that doesn’t appear to be the case.
And Vegas agrees.
Michigan State opens as a 7.5-point underdog next week at Maryland. My guess is that grows to 8, 8.5.
— Graham Couch (@Graham_Couch) September 1, 2024
As you all know, Michigan State only beat Florida Atlantic by six and did not look very impressive, especially on the offensive side of the ball. So it’s no surprise that MSU will be the underdog next week. But 7.5 points feels like a lot, and according to the Lansing State Journal’s Graham Couch, it likely will only go up from there.
So does Vegas have it right or are they underrating Michigan State?
Looking at Maryland’s week one game against UConn it appears Vegas has this line right. The Terps were up 23-0 at halftime and never looked back and went on to win in dominant fashion 50-7. UConn and FAU are very similar in terms of what level they’re at in college football, so that drastic of a difference in the final score is very scary.
So Vegas probably could’ve gotten away with Maryland being even bigger favorites in this one.
But maybe Vegas saw what I did and thinks a lot of Michigan State’s mistakes on Friday are easy to fix. Maybe they think Aidan Chiles will be much better next week. The Spartan’s defense was also fairly dominant so there isn’t much of a chance Maryland scores 50 points next week either.
I tend to not bet on Michigan State games, but even if I did this would be a line that I would avoid because who knows how much Jonathan Smith’s squad will improve by next week, and who knows how much Maryland might struggle against a Power Four opponent.
Maryland
University of Maryland reverses decision to allow anti-Israel protest on October 7
The University of Maryland on Sunday reversed its decision to allow an anti-Israel protest on the first anniversary of the October 7 Massacre, following backlash from local Jewish groups.
UMD Students for Justice in Palestine and UMD Jewish Voice for Peace had been set to hold their October 7 vigil for Gazans killed in the Israel-Hamas War at the campus’s Mckeldin Mall, but the University System of Maryland (USM) said in a statement that on the day of the Hamas-led pogrom it would limit campus events requiring permits or approval to those supporting “a university-sponsored Day of Dialogue.”
“From the beginning of the war, we have come together as a University System to urge that we use this moment to encourage conversation, compassion, and civility; to engage with one another across our differences and draw on our shared humanity and our shared values to bridge what divides us,” said USM. “These dialogues aren’t new. Many of our universities have been hosting this kind of programming for several months. Reserving Oct. 7 gives us a chance to continue these urgent conversations and to mark this solemn anniversary in a way that gives students—all students—the time and space to share and to be heard.”
USM said that its intent was not to infringe of the free expression and speech of students, but to be sensitive to the needs of students as October 7 was a “day of enormous suffering and grief for many in our campus communities.”
UMD Jewish Student Union, Maryland Hillel, Terps for Israel, and Israeli American Council Mishelanu at Maryland welcomed the USM decision and thanked UMD leadership in a joint social media statement on Sunday.
“October 7, the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, is a day of mourning for the Jewish and Israeli community,” said the UMD JSU. “We are relieved that SJP will no longer to be able to appropriate the suffering of our family and friends to fit their false and dangerous narrative.”
The Jewish groups said that it was distraught that the decision to only hold university-sponsored event had to be made at all, and wished to used the campus space to “grieve together as a community” to promote unity at the university. The unideal situation was necessary, according to the Jewish groups, to ensure the physical and psychological safety of students on the day of mourning.
UMD JVP and SJP attacked the decision to cancel the event, claiming that the vigil for Palestinians killed since the October 7 Massacre was attacked without familiarity of the content. The anti-Israel groups said that the discourse was “the continuation inherently racist, Islamophobic, and dehumanizing rhetoric surrounding Palestinians.” JVP and SJP said that the actions against their event were an attempt to paint “Muslim, Arab, and anti-Zionist Jewish students as barbaric.”
The anti-Israel groups asserted that their vigil for Palestinians who died in the war was no threat to the campus’s Jewish community, but conflation of Zionism and Judaism did threaten UMD and the Jewish community.
“To claim that Palestinians cannot hold a day of remembrance in mourning one year of genocide, or lay claim to that date is an insult to every life lost in the Zionist entity’s genocidal campaign,” UMD SJP and JVP said on Instagram on Sunday. “The disproportionate scale of suffering experienced by the Palestinians over the past year necessitates their remembrance and our solidarity on this day. The suffering of all innocents killed must not be monopolized and necessitates a fair and just representation.”
SJP and JVP demanded the right to organize and exercise their right to free speech, accusing Zionists of attempting to stifle Palestinian voices.
The organizations indicated on their Sunday Instagram post that they still planned to hold their all-day event at Mckeldin Mall, and on Monday a link to register still active and listing the campus building as the rally location.
UMD Jewish groups said that they would be holding their own event to memorialize the victims of the October 7 pogrom at the Maryland Hillel.
Maryland
Sunshine for your Labor Day in Maryland
![Sunshine for your Labor Day in Maryland Sunshine for your Labor Day in Maryland](https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2024/09/02/44f70b16-36c5-418b-a083-913b44ccccef/thumbnail/1200x630/35894c49deb7bc01bace1597e72e5c6f/354a4da6cd4b544ff5da5921dfff7e33.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232)
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
-
Connecticut1 week ago
Oxford church provides sanctuary during Sunday's damaging storm
-
Politics1 week ago
Why won't Pennsylvania voters have results on Election Night?
-
Politics1 week ago
With 13 days until voting starts, 'election season' kicks off sooner than you think
-
Politics1 week ago
2024 showdown: What happens next in the Kamala Harris-Donald Trump face-off
-
World1 week ago
Portugal coast hit by 5.3 magnitude earthquake
-
World1 week ago
Solingen stabbing: Three killed in attack at Germany festival
-
World1 week ago
French police officer injured in synagogue arson attack
-
Politics1 week ago
Trump sets intense pace with campaign events as questions swirl about Harris' policy positions