BELFAST, Maine - A company that wants to build a large, land-based salmon farm in coastal Maine has run into potential lease trouble, and opponents are hopeful it derails the project.

Nordic Aquafarms plans to build the salmon farm in Belfast, where it would be capable of producing more than 60 million pounds of fish per year. The Bangor Daily News reports two groups that oppose the fish farm filed a brief recently objecting to the firm’s application for a submerged lands lease.

Upstream Watch and the Maine Lobstering Union say the Norwegian firm doesn’t have sufficient right to cross the intertidal zone.

Nordic strongly disagrees with the groups’ characterization. The company’s director of operations says the company is confident it will be granted a permit it needs to move forward.

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Information from: Bangor Daily News, http://www.bangordailynews.com