Gardnerville fish farm angles for $3.6 million investment

GARDNERVILLE, Nev. — Accredited investors with a minimum of $25,000 are being solicited to raise money to build a $3.6 million fish farm south of Gardnerville.

Nevada Sea Dream and Harvest Returns — which is an online platform for agricultural investing — are seeking investors to build the aquaculture facility on Bently property about a mile south of the Gardnerville Ranchos.

According to Harvest Returns’ website, the farm will generate 4.7 million fingerlings a year.

The project was approved by the Douglas County planning commissioners in December 2014.

The project would enclose more than six acres where European sea bass and barramundi would be raised in salt water.

A spokeswoman for the project said at the time that the fish won’t be genetically altered or fed hormones.

The site is located 4,000 feet from the nearest existing home, though the construction of Rancho Sierra may shorten that distance a bit.

Supporters said the project won’t require any noise or light mitigation. The project will be served by a well and septic system.

In 2014, the growth ponds were described as a closed system designed to recover 96 percent of the water. The 20 or so ponds would require 100 acre feet of water to begin with, and then roughly 30 acre feet a year.

An acre foot equals 325,581 gallons, and is the amount of water it takes to cover one acre of land a foot deep.

When fully operational the plant will produce 3,500 tons of fish, according to the company.

The proposal includes two fish processing buildings of about 270,000 square feet and four lined ponds for wastewater treatment.

There will be some fish processing at the site, including gutting and blooding. That material will be composted by Bently Ranches.

While an agricultural use under Douglas County code, the state engineer considers it quasi municipal, according to Bently Ranch Manager Matt McKinney.

Resource Concepts’ Joe Cacioppo said that operators expect only two trucks a day to access the site. The rest of the trips per day would be the roughly 30 workers employed by the plant.

While estimated at 91, he said he doubted it would be that many.

Trucks would only be allowed to operate between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.