PORTLAND (AP) – A federal judge on Tuesday ordered two large salmon farming companies to pay more than $1.2 million in attorney fees and other costs to an environmental group that sued.
U.S. District Judge Gene Carter ordered Stolt Sea Farm and Atlantic Salmon of Maine to pay the costs to U.S. Public Interest Research Group.
The expenses were part of PIRG’s lawsuit accusing the Norwegian-owned companies of violating the federal Clean Water Act by not possessing permits to discharge pollution into the ocean from their salmon farming operations in eastern Maine.
Carter last year fined the companies $50,000 each and ordered sweeping changes in their future operations. That ruling included a ban on the stocking of European strains of salmon and a requirement that salmon pens remain fallow for two years before being restocked.
Carter’s ruling orders Atlantic Salmon of Maine to pay roughly $678,000, and Stolt to pay about $582,000.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.