Dear editor:
The Michindoh Aquifer is big news again. AquaBounty has applied for a wastewater discharge permit. Many of us thought that the issue was dead. Construction halted, equipment sold off.
Word is their Canadian facility was sold. Could a discharge permit be transferred? This issue will be the topic of a public hearing on June 11, 6:00 pm in the Gillette Bldg. on the Williams County Fairground.
In case you need to be reminded of the background on this, here is a link to a 23-minute audio explaining the history of the AquaBounty salmon farm in Pioneer. www.propublica.org/article/aquabounty-pioneer-ohio-gmo-salmon-fish
The audio represents several months work by Anna Clark who got to the bottom of the entire fiasco: A greedy mayor who profited over $1 million by the sale of some land to a corporation, AquaBounty, which never made a profit in its 30-year history.
A mayor who tried to get a law passed to prevent his being accused of ethics violations in his dealings with AQB; (God bless Gov. DeWine for not signing!)
A feckless FDA which approved AQB’s GMO salmon as “a new animal drug.” Various agencies contributed money to get it started: JobsOhio $1 million grant; Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority $425 million in bonds; enterprise zone gave them 15 years without property taxes.
Pioneer extended a road at $1.7 million; Pioneer borrowed $3.95 million for an electric substation to fill AQB’s needs.
Not to be outdone in the feckless category, the State of Ohio granted AQB a permit to remove 5.25 million gallons of water PER DAY to operate the salmon farm.
(Residents in my neighborhood have had to dig new wells because of center pivot irrigation systems installed by local farmers.) Not only are they planning to deplete our aquifer, they want to contaminate the ground water.
That could happen if their wastewater discharge permit is approved. So the EPA will step up and decline this permit request, right?
Quoting from a Toledo Blade article dated May 22, 2025, Anne Vogel who is the US EPA’s Midwest Regional Administrator: “the proposed discharge from AquaBounty’s Pioneer site will result in a lowering of water quality in the east branch of the nearby St. Joseph River, but “will not interfere with or become injurious to the existing designated use.”
It’s OK that the St. Joseph River will have a “lowering of water quality.” No problem here. Move on.
Dolores Whitman
Bryan, Ohio