1 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 Ocean Beauty Seafoods

Plant Address Cordova, Alaska

NPDES Permit # AKG520494

Date of Visit Thursday, August 19, 2010 People Contacted Hap Symmonds, Plant Manager

Rene Vargas, Assistant Plant Manager Joe Frazier, Director Corporate Food Safety, QA and Regulatory

Affairs

Cindy Luna, QA Manager

Seafood processed Pink salmon (canned) Red salmon (fresh and frozen) King salmon (fresh and frozen) Chum salmon (fresh and Frozen) Pink Salmon (Frozen) Coho Salmon (Fresh and Frozen)

Halibut

Black cod

Products Canned salmon

Fresh and frozen

Frozen salmon roe Range of annual production volume 5 to 18 million pounds Months of operation May – September Discharge type Ground and discharged through NPDES permitted

outfall Company Website http://www.oceanbeauty.com/

Hap Symmonds, plant manager, noted that at th e time of the visit, the Cordova plant was breaking their record for the most cases produced in a season. During the 2010 season, Prince William Sound (PWS) fishermen had harvested 60 million pink salmon, about three times the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game projection. Ocean Beauty expected to process 18 million pounds of salmon in 2010.

Mr. Symmonds described the Prince Willia m Sound Aquaculture Corporation, a nonprofit business that operates several salmon hatcheries ar ound PWS and the Copper River delta. According to their website (www.pwsac.co m), their goal is to optimize the value of the salmon resources produced in Prince W illiam Sound. With headquarters in Cordova, Alaska, PWSAC operates four remote salm on hatcheries in Prince William Sound and one on the Copper River system in Paxson. Approximately 600 million salmon fry and2 smolt are produced for release into Pacifi c waters. Mr. Symmonds credited the PWSAC hatcheries with helping to pr oduce 2010’s record harvest.

After Ms. Guzzo presented the background for the EPA visit, Mr. Symmonds noted that the Cordova community was concerned a bout grinding seafood processing waste. Neighbors are upset with the seabird populati on that is supported by the near-shore discharge of seafood processing wastes. In part icular, people who use harvested rainwater for drinking water are concerned about wa ter contamination with bird feces.

Mr. Symmonds noted that Ocean Beauty’s current NPDES permit prohibits discharge

between October and March. The reason is that local sea otters purportedly became infested with parasitic worms from eating cod waste (cod is harvested in the winter). He said this permit condition was “pushed thr ough” by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Native Corporations. The result was elimin ation of cod and halibut production at his plant. It would also precl ude herring production, if the herring populations rebounded and fishing were allowed. The season for bait he rring is in November and December.

Ocean Beauty conducted its permit-require d pile survey in January-February, 2010. Historically there is no measurab le pile because of the strong current in the channel. In contrast, the outfall from the neighboring plan t at the time it was owned by North Pacific Seafood was situated such that a large waste pile accumulated. A Coast Guard buoy tender went aground on the waste pile. Bear and Wolf, who bought th e plant from North Pacific, extended the outfall line.

Mr. Symmonds provided some background on by-pr oduct recovery. He noted that in the

mid-1990s the PWS Utilization Committee was formed. This committee included processors, Native Villages, and environmenta l groups. They explored the possibility of developing a waste reduction f acility in Cordova. They l ooked for state funding through the committee on economic development. At that time, what is now the Trident Cannery was owned by North Pacific Seafoods 1 who did not want to part icipate in the venture. The successor to North Pacific, Bear and Wolf also refused to participate in a cooperative offal operation. Ocean Beauty and the other Cordova processors did not think a waste reduction facility would be economically viab le without Bear and Wolf’s participation, and the project was put on hold.

Trident’s cannery is located immediately ad jacent to the Ocean Beauty plant. In 2009, Trident built a waste reduction plant on the side of their property that is farthest from Ocean Beauty. The waste reduction plant was built on land transferred to Bear and Wolf (now Trident) from the City of Cordova. Although the City Counc il was open to selling the land to a cooperative 2 , without Bear and Wolf’s partic ipation, the coop erative was not

viable and the land was so ld to Bear and Wolf.

1 The North Pacific Seafoods plant wa s sold to Bear and Wolf and then recently sold to Trident Seafoods.

2 A copy of City Council meeting minutes is attached. During review of this report, Ocean Beauty checked the property records and found there was nothing that would be legally binding to force Trident to take any waste from any of the other processors.3 In 2009, Ocean Beauty sent salmon heads to the Trident by-products plant. They set up a program to do it again in 2010, but then were told Trident could not take the waste 3

. Trident said they would take Ocean Beauty’s waste in 2011, but at the time of the visit Ocean Beauty had not talked to Trident about costs or disposal guarantees. Ocean Beauty managers noted that Trident’s by-product recovery plant sometimes has a bad odor. They recalled that citizens compla ined about odor and sinus problems when

there was a heat inversion over the town and no wind dispersion.

During a discussion of the products made at Trident’s by-product recovery plant, Mr. Symmonds noted that salmon hydrolysate might be used as a chicken feed additive to improve the protein quality and of th e eggs produced by these chickens.

Operations. Ocean Beauty processes a small amount of halibut and black cod, but their main product is salmon. They are open from May 1 through September 30. Their production consists of:

 Two lines making “tall” cans of pink salmon. They do not make skinless/boneless product.

 Fresh and frozen Red, Chum, Coho, Pink and King salmon, sold as H&G (headed and gutted) whole fish. The red salmon caught on the “flats” is marketed as “Copper River Red” and fe tches a premium price.

 Salmon roe, both ikura and sujiko.

 A small hand-production fillet line.

Ocean Beauty has been certified by the Trans portation Safety Authority (TSA) as a selfscreening cargo shipper. This means their produ cts can get to market faster, resulting in higher quality for the consumer.

Production can be as low as 5 million pounds in a low year. Ocean Beauty expected to process 18 million pounds of salmon in 2010, w ith additional production of halibut and cod. They use about 4 to 5 million gallons of city water per month during salmon season. Water for the retorts is super-chlorinated (for food safety reasons) and discharged from

the retorts. It is not recove red for use in the boilers.

Plant Tour. Cindy Luna and Renee Vargas provided Ms. Guzzo and Ms. Bicknell with a tour of the plant.

The Ocean Beauty plant is constructed on pilings (Figure 1). The plant was built in 1978

but the can fillers on the A Line date from 1938.

3 During a visit with Trident later on August 19, 2010 Rick Isaacson ex plained that Trident did not take Ocean Beauty or Copper River waste in 2010 because ADEC had told Tr ident they needed to provide the other processors with insulated totes for storage and transfer of salmon heads. Trident was not able to obtain enough insulated totes by the beginning of the fishing seas on to provide totes to Ocean Beauty and Copper River. Mr. Isaacson said Trident planned to obtain totes and have them available for the 2011

season.4 Wastewater containing solids accumulates in two sumps located under the building. Solids, including heads, tails, and frames pass through multiple grinders. Heads are ground with Autio grinders and then flow into the sump. Figure 2 shows a waste conveyor and Figure 3 shows an Autio grinder. Waste from the sump passes through two Vaughan chopper pumps, and a Muffin Monste rTM. Waste is discharged through the

outfall which is 40 to 50 feet below the su rface. During the tour, a large number of seagulls were noted c ongregating at the outfall (Figures 4 and 5).

In 2009, Ocean Beauty collected fish heads a nd trucked them to the Trident by-products plant. This required installing a chute from th e conveyor into iced to tes. According to Ms. Luna, collecting the fish head s required a little more wo rk but did not throw off the production rhythm.

Fish are off loaded using a basket brailer, which dumps the fish into totes on the dock. Ocean Beauty does not wash totes or melt ice on the dock to ensure that all wastewater flows into the drain system, to the sumps, and then the outfall. Totes that contain material and are stored on the dock are plugged to prev ent leakage. Ocean Beauty managers noted that the dock is small, but efficient. Fisher men come in, unload, and leave. They are not allowed to store gear on the dock. The dock handled 20 million pounds of fish in 2010.

Ocean Beauty operates two side-by-side canni ng lines. One runs at 250 cans/minute and the other, which is a bit older, runs at 230 cans/minute. Canned salmon is cooked in six retorts. The plant operates from 7AM to mi dnight, with a break of not more than two

hours. The fresh/frozen line can run close to 24 hours/day. An overview of the plant is

shown in Figure 6 and the fish conveyer is shown in Figure 7

.

In a separate egg room, pink salmon roe is processed into ikura for the Russian and European markets. Roe from chum and red salmon are also processed. Figure 8 shows a worker separating salmon roe from the salmon gut s. All egg room waste is directed into flumes that flow into two small sumps. Wa ste from these sumps is pumped over to the main sumps using a level-activated pu mp. Packaged salmon roe is shown in Figure 9

.

In the case up area, the frozen fish are glazed, and packed.5 Figure 1. View of Ocean Beauty plant show ing piling foundation (taken from Trident)6 Figure 2. Waste conveyor7 Figure 3. Autio grinder 1

Figure 4. Gulls at outfall8 Figure 5. Ocean Beauty outfall with gulls

Figure 6. Overview9 Figure 7. Fish conveyor

Figure 8. Roe separating10 Figure 9. Salmon roe packed for shipment11 Minutes from Cordova City Council Meeting Provided by Hap Symmonds, Ocean Beauty Seafoods