The Alaska Division of Environmental Conservation has fined a seafood processing plant in Bristol Bay $467,469 for violations relationship again to 2017 that embody discharging hundreds of thousands of kilos extra fish waste into the Naknek River than they have been allowed to dump.
The Silver Bay Seafoods plant on the Naknek River additionally allowed a vessel in 2021 to dump bloody wastewater from the catch into waters close to the dock, violating state necessities, in accordance with a 37-page consent settlement signed Monday by the corporate and Alaska officers.
Silver Bay Seafoods, working a number of seafood processing services in Alaska, has taken steps to appropriate the issue, an organization spokeswoman mentioned.
“Silver Bay Seafoods voluntarily applied corrective actions earlier than the settlement was finalized,” mentioned Abby Fredrick, a spokeswoman with the corporate. “We’re assured these measures will guarantee compliance for this season and past.”
The plant is situated about 300 miles southwest of Anchorage. It’s about 5 miles upstream from the mouth of the Naknek River. The corporate has been permitted by the state to dump 10 million kilos of fish into the river, via an outfall line, after it’s floor into tiny items. However an excessive amount of waste can harm the river system, the company mentioned in an announcement Wednesday.
The penalty comes simply as one other large salmon fishing season is predicted to quickly warmth up quickly in Bristol Bay. Fishermen and processors are preparing for attainable record-setting run of 75 million sockeye salmon, the state mentioned.
The effective seems to be the biggest ever issued by the Alaska Division of Water, which incorporates previous violations by the oil and fuel and mining industries, mentioned Randy Bates, director of the division.
“That is total, to the perfect of our information, the very best penalty assessed to a allow holder,” Bates mentioned in an interview.
Silver Bay knowingly disregarded the state’s allow phrases, Bates mentioned.
Bates mentioned the dimensions of the effective is predicated on a calculation beneath the rules of the Environmental Safety Company. A lot of it addresses the financial benefit the processor acquired from the violations over opponents, he mentioned.
The penalty is the results of negotiations between the corporate and the Division of Water, Bates mentioned.
Silver Bay Seafoods has grown rapidly since opening its first facility in Sitka in 2007. One proprietor is StarKist, the U.S. canned tuna firm, in accordance with Alaska enterprise information.
An inspection by the Division of Environmental Conservation in 2021 discovered a number of violations on the Naknek plant, together with fish waste that was not floor into sufficiently small items, the company mentioned in an announcement.
In 2020, Silver Bay Seafoods illegally dumped about 5 million kilos of fish waste into the Naknek River, exceeding its permitted restrict by about 50%, the state mentioned in its assertion.
And in 2017, the seafood plant illegally dumped about 3 million kilos of waste into the Naknek River, about 30% greater than it was permitted to discharge. The corporate claimed that was “as a result of unprecedented quantity of salmon we processed (that) 12 months,” in accordance with paperwork related to the settlement.
The settlement lays out steps Silver Bay should take to forestall comparable waste sooner or later.
They embody contracting with transport vessels to hold additional waste away from the river, and offering higher communication with captains about restrictions towards dumping fishing wastewater into the water on the dock.
Bates mentioned the penalty ought to discourage different seafood processors from violating the regulation.
“When you take a look at Bristol Bay’s file runs, there’s some huge cash being made by fishermen and processors,” Bates mentioned. “I don’t know the way this effective compares to the revenue strains of corporations, however we want them to adjust to the circumstances of the permits to guard the surroundings.”