Samherji responds to agency over RAS plant plan

Samherji, the Icelandic seafood group planning to build a large land farm near the capital Reykjavik has said its “phased” approach should address any concerns that the project might pose a threat to water supplies in the area.

Iceland’s national planning agency last month expressed concerns about the impact of the development on water resources around Reykjanes in the south west of the country.

The agency called for the £260m facility to be built in stages so the effects on water supply can be assessed after each phase is completed. The ultimate harvest target is 40,000 tonnes of Atlantic salmon.

Samherji has now issued a statement saying it already plans to do that, with the first stage producing 10,000 tonnes, the second 20,000 tonnes and 40,000 tonnes after the third and final phase.

It says: “Sea extraction will also be phased, but in a fully built station. The company plans to use a maximum of 30,000 l/s (litres per second) of ground sea, about 50 l/s of freshwater and about 3,200 l/s of warm seawater from Reykjanesvirkjun… it is worth stressing that all other water that will be used for the fish farm is salty seawater that will be pumped from the coastal ridge below Eldisgarð.The Planning Agency believes that the most significant environmental impact concerns groundwater and geological formations.

“The institute’s assessment of possible environmental impacts is comparable to the results of the Samherji fish farm’s environmental assessment report.

“The opinion acknowledges the importance of the phasing of the Edisgarð development, as proposed by Samherji Fish Farm, in order to ensure the most accurate information about the environmental impact at any given time.”

Jón Kjartan Jónsson, manager of Samherji Fish Farms, says that work on the assessment plan and the environmental assessment report took three years, and they tried to answer the comments of the public and commenters in a clear and decisive manner.

“The environmental assessment report also states the proposed countermeasures to minimize the environmental impact of the project. The environmental assessment and approved plan are important milestones for us to build a new and complete onshore power plant at Reykjanes.

He added: “The opinion is positive and it is also a pleasure to receive praise from the authorities for a thorough and well-prepared report.

“We are aiming for the production of salmon, where sea pumping will be a key factor, and it is a self-evident requirement that we raise the impact of sea fishing on the environment as we propose.

“The only way to map the impact with more precision than we have already done is to responsibly monitor the impact of sea pumping, which is the main reason why the project will be phased.”

He also said that uncertainty has been eliminated through monitoring, stressing that the company had taken great pride and put in a lot of hard work in its entire preparation for the project.