If you drive just Southwest of Richlands, VA across the Clinch River, and toward the municipal wastewater treatment plant, you’ll quickly stumble into the territory of a secret Israeli project known only to a handful of Tazewell County and state government officials in Richmond. Nearly 120 acres of land on three sides of the plant have been quietly acquired by Dominion Aquaculture, LLC, the U.S. subsidiary of the Israeli fish farming company AquaMaof.
The Virginia Israel Advisory Board (VIAB)—the only state government agency that exists in the United States with the sole mission of delivering preferential market access and massive subsidies exclusively to Israeli companies—has kept nearly all details about the project under wraps since 2014. It is code named “Project Jonah.”
