TREMONT — A long and tortured fight to renew an aquaculture lease for a 15-acre mussel farm east of Hardwood Island in Blue Hill Bay may have come to an end. Or at least, another long pause.
On Nov. 1, the Department of Marine Resources issued a “Revised Proposed Decision” in long-running proceedings relating to the application of Maine Cultured Mussels Inc. to renew its lease on the site for a period of 10 years ending in March 2023. The original lease expired in March of 2013.
The decision comes more than 23 years after the original lease was first granted, almost four years after the original lease expired and after two public hearings, one in August 2015 and another in June of this year.
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