By TRACY LOEW/Salem Statesman Journal
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has fined Seattle-based American Seafoods Company and the owners of its fish-processing vessels nearly $1 million for significant violations of the Clean Water Act committed while harvesting and processing fish in the Pacific Ocean off the Oregon and Washington coasts.
EPA cited the companies for hundreds of violations, including discharging waste in the protected Heceta/Stonewall banks complex off the central Oregon Coast, failing to monitor its discharges and missing or inaccurate information in required annual reports.
Heceta Bank is located about 35 miles off the coast near Florence. Stonewall Bank is about 15 miles west of Newport.
The vessels are the American Dynasty, American Triumph, Northern Eagle, Northern Jaeger and Ocean Rover. These are five of the six large catcher-processor vessels the company owns and operates to harvest and process fish, mostly pollock, they catch in the waters off Oregon, Washington and Alaska.
In a written statement, American Seafoods said the fine related to reporting, filing and interpretation of data in a new federal permit covering Oregon and Washington.
“American Seafoods continues to have the highest priority focus on reporting and compliance and looks forward to putting this matter behind us,” the company wrote.
Discharge of seafood processing waste in prohibited areas and within the 100-meter depth contour of Washington and Oregon exacerbates already existing low-oxygen conditions which negatively impact most fishes, crabs and other marine life, EPA officials said.
EPA said it evaluated the compliance of the Oregon and Washington seafood processing industry and found that American Seafoods Company stood apart from other Oregon and Washington offshore fish processors in the number and severity of violations.
EPA fined the companies $999,000. It also will require the companies to conduct corporate-wide, systemic improvements to ensure compliance with their permits.
“In amassing hundreds of violations from illegal discharges to sloppy and even non-existent record-keeping, American Seafoods Company demonstrated a clear disregard for the fragile and valuable resources that sustain its business,” Ed Kowalski, director of EPA’s Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Division in Seattle, said in a news release announcing the fine.
The company said that since March, it has worked with the EPA to better understand how the agency uses data the company submits; has worked with third-party consultants to ensure permit compliance; and has assigned additional staff and updated processes to ensure reporting is complete, accurate and timely.
Discharges of seafood processing wastewater is prohibited in some areas and within the 328 foot depth contour off Washington and Oregon. The wastewater discharge “exacerbates already existing low-oxygen conditions which negatively impact most fishes, crabs and other marine life,” according to the EPA.
The order requires American Seafood “to conduct corporate-wide, systemic improvements to ensure compliance with its permits,” according to the agency.
“When issuing a permit, EPA confers to the permit holder the responsibility to protect our nation’s resources,” the agency said in announcing the fines. “We expect the company-wide, systematic overhaul of its operations will re-focus American Seafoods Company on the true value of its permit, the importance of tracking compliance with the permit, and the resources that permit entrusts it with protecting.”
- The National Fisherman publication contributed to this report
