PIONEER, Ohio — A visiting judge has allowed one of northwest Ohio's largest and most controversial industrial development projects to proceed.
But it’s unclear how soon that might happen.
In a 14-page order filed in Williams County Common Pleas Court, Judge Reeve Kelsey said he found the Williams County Board of Commissioners took an “arbitrary and capricious” position when it voted against letting AquaBounty Technologies and the village of Pioneer build a water transmission pipeline and a wastewater transmission pipeline.
The requested pipelines are for a future indoor salmon farm the company is trying to build in Pioneer.
The facility, if built, would be one of the nation’s largest.
The project received a $425 million commitment in the fall of 2022 from the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, which agreed to sell that much in bonds to finance it. The latest cost estimate is $125 million more than the original $300 million of bonds the port board had agreed to sell in October, 2021 for AquaBounty.
Williams County commissioners have generally supported the plan, but twice turned down requests to lay raw water and wastewater lines in a public right-of-way for a private company.
The village responded by forming a public utility that states that water pumped to Pioneer North Industrial Park, the proposed site for the indoor salmon farm, would be available for other uses, such as firefighting.
But the Ohio Department of Natural Resources permit that was issued in 2022 states that water withdrawn from the aquifer “shall be used by Permittee [AquaBounty] only for the purposes of Permittee’s planned aquaculture farm as described in the Application.”
It does not say anything about a public utility.
Judge Kelsey said in his ruling, though, that the position the county board took “is not supported by a preponderance of the substantial, reliable, and probative evidence on the whole record.”
“We are very pleased with the court’s decision and will continue to work with the Village of Pioneer on the path forward,” Sylvia Wulf, AquaBounty chief executive officer and board chairman, said in a statement issued by a public relations firm.
Pioneer Mayor Ed Kidston, who provided some of the land at the industrial park, declined comment.
AquaBounty announced last June it was pausing construction because of economic issues.
Its website now states that the Pioneer project “continues to be important to the Company’s growth strategy, and the Company is committed to finding a path forward for this project.”
Holly Kemler, Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority spokesman, said the port authority “has no update from the company on its project plans.”
Aaron M. Glasgow, a Columbus-based attorney representing the county commission, could not be reached for comment.
Terry Lodge, attorney for the Williams County Alliance, a citizens group opposed to the salmon farm, noted that the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency held back on issuing permits until after the judge’s ruling, which he believes is flawed.
“Hopefully, the Williams County Commissioners will bring the factual error to the attention of the court and the order will be suspended until proper evidence of finality of environmental permitting is put into the record,” Mr. Lodge said. “That way, the public can have the opportunity to participate in the OEPA permitting process. There surely are issues around the high volume of wastewater that will be put into the Maumee River Watershed from a major new source, and advocates for cleaning up Lake Erie, who may be far from Williams County, will want to be heard.”
The company’s plan is to install water lines in the county right-of-way in order to send raw water from AquaBounty’s permitted well to the farm site under construction on Kexon Drive, as well as a wastewater/stormwater line that would return fully treated water from the future facility to a discharge location in the East Branch of the St. Joseph’s River.
The company has been hoping to discharge into the St. Joseph River, which flows into the Maumee River and ultimately out to western Lake Erie. It has vowed to stay within permitted levels.
AquaBounty has wanted to build an indoor salmon-rearing facility in Pioneer that is larger than one it operates in Albany, Ind.
Records show that one has been cited for multiple discharge violations by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management in recent months. The company paid a $7,800 fine to that state regulator to settle the violations, and was sent a letter by certified mail on May 17 that outlined terms of an order to remain in compliance.
AquaBounty produces genetically engineered salmon by fertilizing conventional Atlantic salmon eggs with sperm from AquAdvantage salmon males that were modified in 1989. The modification has been passed down from one generation to the next over 33 years in the sperm, or milt, of confined male salmon.
It plans to house salmon in a 479,000-square-foot building to be built on 85 acres inside the recently annexed North Pioneer Industrial Park, eight times as large as AquaBounty’s next-largest facility in Albany, Ind.
As many as 27 million gallons of water are to be kept inside the building at any given time, all of which is continually recirculated for the fish.
The plant is expected to produce more than 22 million pounds of fish annually. Only one other salmon farm in the United States, in South Florida, has that kind of capacity.
First Published January 19, 2024, 12:00 p.m.
