On October 19 the Maine Board of Environment Protection held a hearing on whether to revoke the permits it had issued for Nordic Aquafarms to build a $500 million industrial fish farm in Belfast. The hearing followed a February 16 Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruling that Nordic doesn't own nor can use land it needs for its project.

In order to even a apply for a BEP permit one must demonstrate ownership or ability to use all needed lands. Nordic has never done this, but that didn't stop BEP from issuing permits to Nordic, and in February Maine's highest court sent the whole thing back to BEP to decide what to do with Nordic's ill-gotten permits, given the court's ruling against Nordic.

But BEP didn't decide that. Instead it passed the buck to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. Given that BEP issued its written 13-page ruling less than 20 hours after the October 19 hearing, it's hard to imagine BEP didn't decide the matter well before it pretended to listen to three hours of testimony.

It gets worse.

BEP member Steven Pelletier refused to recuse himself from the decision, despite working for a company that did paid PR work for Nordic and despite having repeatedly and publicly praised Nordic.

And at one point in the hearing Presiding Officer Robert Duchesne said: "What do I care, I won't be around." This after Duchesne, a supposedly impartial party, praised Nordic's questionable effluent discharge treatment in Nordic's original permit hearing.

Clearly the BEP is a sham, as was its October 19 hearing. There is now only one legitimate course for DEP, to revoke all Nordic permits. And while it's at it, DEP should eliminate the farcical BEP.

Lawrence Reichard lives in Belfast