More than 100 residents last week spent several hours dissecting plans for a more than $300 million (€312 million) land-based salmon farm proposed for a small town in Maryland by Norwegian company AquacCon.

"The issue that is the topic of greatest discussion and concerns is a discharge permit," Ryan Showalter, who serves as AquaCon's Maryland-based legal and strategic community relations lead, said as part of a presentation given Sept. 19 at a town meeting in Federalsburg.

Last month, the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) issued a tentative permit to allow AquaCon to discharge up to 2.3