A 2018 artist’s rendering of the Nordic Aquafarms facility proposed for construction beside the Little River in Belfast. The company announced Friday that it is abandoning its plans. Courtesy of Nordic Aquafarms

The Norwegian company behind a controversial Belfast aquaculture project says it is abandoning the plan because of legal challenges.

The $500 million project, which would have been one of the largest land-based salmon farms in the world, has been in the works since 2018. Nordic Aquafarms said it would bring jobs and economic development to the area, while environmental groups said it would have negative impacts like polluting Penobscot Bay and overwhelming local infrastructure.

Nordic Aquafarms wanted to use more than 40 acres of land to farm 66 million pounds of salmon annually, and although the company maintained that the project met environmental standards, it quickly received challenges from environmental groups.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court issued two rulings in 2023 that set back the project. And the Belfast City Council, which had long supported the project, seized a parcel of land for the project through eminent domain, then lost a legal challenge to the seizure. The council reversed its eminent domain decision, and the company sued the city for its reversal in May 2024.

Amid all those legal challenges, the company announced Friday that it will be dropping the project.

Nordic Aquafarms’ statement says it received all necessary permits, and that the project would have aligned with community and environmental goals of sustainability.

“This is a sad day for Maine’s economy and outlook for aquaculture or any significant investment in the state,” CEO Brenda Chandler said in the statement. “While a few may view this as a victory, we argue that this is a significant loss overall, not just for Nordic Aquafarms but for the community. The expanded tax base for the city of Belfast was significant; new jobs for the area was significant; and Maine’s leadership in aquaculture-born solutions also significant.”

However, an environmental organization that has been fighting the project for years said it was thrilled about the announcement.

“This has been a long, hard fight for us and others against Nordic and what we feel like was a pretty fatally flawed project from the start,” said Jillian Howell, the executive director of Upstream Watch, citing the impact on forested land, wetlands and Penobscot Bay.

Howell said the February 2023 court decision that said the company did not have access to a piece of intertidal land felt like a turning point in the opposition efforts. The city’s choice to rescind eminent domain, she said, felt like the nail in the coffin.

“This is not a loss for Belfast. This is not a loss for our community,” Howell said. “This is a win for the people that live here, for the people who love this river and who love this bay and who want to see it protected and who understand that conserving our natural areas, not developing them, is crucial to prosperity for our community, both economic and otherwise.”