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Site Visit Report 

Alaska Seafood Processing Industry Petition Response 

Lindsay Guzzo 

Environmental Engineer 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 

Region 10 Permits Division 

guzzo.lindsay@epa.gov

206-553-0268 

 Betsy Bicknell 

 Senior Environmental Engineer 

 Eastern Research Group, Inc. (ERG) 

 betsy.bicknell@erg.com

 703-633-1612 

Plant Name Westward Seafoods, Inc. 

Plant Address Kodiak, Alaska 

NPDES Permit # AKG528825 

Date of Visit Wednesday, August 18, 2010 

People Contacted Chris Sannito1

, Quality Assurance Manager 

Seafood processed Pollock 

Cod 

Rockfish 

Crab 

Salmon (<10% of production) 

Products Fresh and Frozen 

 Whole (round) fish (H&G) 

 Fillets 

 Roe 

Surimi 

Range of annual production volume 40 million pounds per year 

Months of operation January through November 

Discharge type Screened solids are trucked to Kodiak Fishmeal Company 

Screened wastewater is discharged through NPDES 

permitted outfall, meets O&G and TSS limits. 

Company Website www.westwardseafoods.com 

Westward Seafoods, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mahura Nachiro Holding Company, 

operates a large seafood processing plant in Kodiak. The plant operates ten months of the 

year, slowing down in the fall and stopping operations sometime between the end of 

October and the end of November, at end of trawling season. Westward has sent its 

screened processing wastes to the Kodiak Fishmeal Company plant since 1996. 

Westward is a co-owner of the plant [information claimed CBI was removed from this 

report]. Mr. Sannito explained that all the co-owners [information claimed CBI was 

removed from this report]. The plant can store three to four days of waste, and so does 

not run continuously in November and December, when Kodiak processing volume is 

low. 

[information claimed CBI was removed from this report] The meal plant cuts operating 

costs by recovering and burning white fish oil instead of diesel. Also, although their 

salmon oil is not food grade, they sell it to another company for refining and it is sold as a 

 

1

 Maricar Mangampo provided comments on this report after Chris Sannito left Westward Seafoods. 
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nutraceutical. Bone is also recovered, and sold for use in organic farming because of its 

high phosphorus content. 

Westward produces fresh and frozen whole fish (H&G), fillets, and surimi. They do not 

have a canning line and salmon makes up less than 10% of their typical2

 40 million 

pounds/year of production. Pollock is the main species Westward processes. They 

process a small amount of crab harvested near Kodiak (they do not process crab 

harvested in the Bering Sea). The rockfish fishery was open in 2010 for the first time in 

years, as a pilot program. Mr. Sannito thought it was unlikely that the rockfish fishery 

would be open in 20113. 

Water use varies considerably with plant operations. When they are making surimi, 

Westward uses 2 MGD of city water. Water use falls to 0.4 MGD or less when they are 

processing groundfish into H&G or fillets. Westward pays $1,100/MG for city water, a 

major production expense. 

Operations. During the August 18, 2010 visit, Westward was receiving pollock and 

rockfish. Fish are pumped from the trawler holds, weighed, and conveyed to holding 

tanks or totes. Figure 1 shows the fish transfer hose of a fish pump used to empty a 

trawler hold. Figure 2 shows Pacific rockfish on a conveyor and Figure 3 shows the fish 

in totes. 

Mr. Sannito explained that until 2003 Westward allowed melting ice and other transfer 

wastewater to drip through gaps in their wooden dock. The dock is now surfaced in 

concrete and all wastewater is routed to the plant sumps for eventual discharge through 

the permitted outfall. 

Fish are placed in totes and moved through the plant with fork lifts because Westward 

has few conveyors. Figures 4 and 5 show the different variety of fish in totes waiting for 

processing. 

Westward produces #1 grade surimi from fillets and #2 grade from frame meat. The meat 

is minced, washed and dewatered with screw presses. The dewatered mince is packed in 

boxes and frozen on a contact plate freezer (Figure 6). Westward also operates air blast 

freezers. The surimi line was not operating at the time of the visit, scheduled to re-start 

September 1. 

Fresh product is shipped by Air Alaska air freight. Frozen products are shipped by sea. 

Labor Force. Westward employs a seasonal labor force that enters the country on J-1 

visas. Westward does not pay for their transportation, but supplies lodging in a bunk 

house or apartments. 

 

2

 During her review of this report, Maricar Mangampo indicated that production varies from year to year.

3

 During her review of this report, Maricar Mangampo indicated that the rockfish fishery was open for 

2011. 
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Waste Management. Westward freezes and sells parts of the cod that other processors 

waste. These include heads, gills, stomachs, and livers, but not frames. 

In general, waste is sluiced through flumes throughout the plant into the main sump 

channel that is under Buildings A and B. A level-controlled 10” pump lifts the 

wastewater to rotary screens located on an upper level of the plant. Westward bought the 

screens from IPEC, Vancouver, BC in 1998. They were a replacement for hydrosieve 

screens, needed because Westward’s waste volume had increased and they wanted to 

produce a drier waste. The screens are equipped with a 0.5 mm mesh (1 mm is typical in 

Kodiak). The rotary screen is shown in Figure 7. Waste discharged from the rotary 

screens drops into a holding bin (shown in Figure 8). From the holding bin, waste is 

loaded into dump trucks for transport to the Kodiak Fishmeal Company plant. Some 

waste is placed directly into totes that are taken to tote dumper near the waste truck 

loading area. 

Westward, unlike the other processors in Kodiak, does not contract with a 3rd party waste 

hauler to take its waste to the fishmeal plant. Instead, Westward owns and operates two 

trucks. Trucking is a big expense. 

Westward also has a concrete boat ramp on its property that trucks carrying waste from 

other processors can use to load a barge for off sea disposal, in the event that the fishmeal 

plant cannot operate. The meal plant leases a Cape Douglas barge as a contingency. Mr. 

Sannito recalls only one time that the meal plant did not operate during busy pollock 

season. 

Birds that try to feed on the waste are a nuisance and can be harmed. In the winter, eagles 

congregate around the processing plants. 

Wastewater that passes through the rotary screens is discharged through Westward’s 

NPDES permitted outfall. Figure 9 shows the wastewater sampling tap. Westward 

contracts with Kodiak Seafood Laboratories to analyze samples of the wastewater for 

O&G, TSS, SS, and pH. Mr. Sannito is the technician who analyzes the samples. Mr. 

Sannito says Westward has never had a problem meeting their permit limits. 
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Figure 1. Fish transfer hose 
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Figure 2. Pacific rockfish 

Figure 3. Transfer to totes 
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Figure 4. Fish in totes 

Figure 5. Fish in totes 
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Figure 6. Block freezers 

Figure 7. Rotary screen 
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Figure 8. Waste for meal plant 

Figure 9 Effluent sampling point