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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 Alaska Pacific Seafoods (subsidiary of North Pacific Seafoods) 

Plant Address Kodiak, Alaska 

NPDES Permit # AKG 528434

Date of Visit Tuesday, August 17, 2010 

People Contacted Brandon Basso, Manager Quality Assurance and Regulatory 

Compliance 

Seafood processed Black Cod (sable fish) 

Pacific Grey Cod 

Halibut 

Salmon (all species) 

Crab (tanner and King) 

Rockfish 

Pollock 

Sea cucumber 

Skate 

Herring 

Octopus 

Flounder & Sole (numerous species) 

Ling Cod 

Numerous ancillary products from the species listed above 

Products Fresh and frozen 

 Whole (round) fish 

 H&G (headed and gutted) 

 Fillets 

 Roe (ikura and sujiko) 

Range of annual production volume [Confidential Business Information (CBI), removed from 

this report] 

Months of operation January – 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. 

Website www.northpacificseafoods.com 

Alaska Pacific Seafoods (Alaska Pacific) is a subsidiary of North Pacific Seafoods. They 

process a wide variety of finfish into fresh or frozen products that include but are not 

limited to fillets, H&G, and whole round fish. They also process tanner and King crab, 
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sea cucumber, and skate. They do not make surimi and process pollock only a few weeks 

per year. [CBI, removed from this report]. 

Alaska Pacific use about 550,000 gallons per day of fresh water. 

Operations. Fish harvested in large volumes, like pink salmon, arrive in tenders. Alaska 

Pacific pumps the fish from the tender’s holds into its holding tanks which are chilled 

with freshwater and slush ice. Alaska Pacific has four large and four small fish holding 

tanks. Fish harvested in smaller volumes are held in iced totes until processed. 

Figure 1 shows the salmon processing line. Fish are headed and gutted. Blood and other 

waste are sluiced away from the processing line with water. Heads are transferred to a 

separate waste belt. Guts drop onto the gut belt so roe can be separated from the guts. 

[CBI, removed from this report] After freezing, the blocks of frozen salmon are tipped 

out of the pans, glazed, and bagged for shipment (Figure 4). [CBI, removed from this 

report] 

Products are loaded into refrigerated shipping vans. [CBI, removed from this report] 

Halibut and sometimes black cod are gilled and gutted on the fishing vessel. Alaska 

Pacific removes the heads. [CBI, removed from this report]. Pollock and other types of 

cod are NOT gilled and gutted, but are delivered to Alaska Pacific whole. 

Waste Management. Alaska Pacific discharges wastewater through its NPDES 

permitted outfall, 75 feet below the surface, 500 feet from shore. 

Waste is sluiced from the processing line as shown in Figure 5. Heads and guts are 

transferred by auger (Figure 6) to a solid waste hopper. Some waste is placed directly 

into totes that are carried by fork lift to the truck loading area (Figure 7). Waste is 

washed down to floor drains and wastewater accumulates in a sump. From the sump, 

wastewater and solids pumped to the interior-feed rotary screen (Figure 8). The rotary 

screen discharges solid waste (Figure 9) into the hopper two levels below the rotary 

screen. A dump truck backs under the hopper and is loaded directly from the hopper. 

Figure 10 shows the underside of the truck loading hopper. 

The truck takes waste from the plant six to seven times per day. If the hopper is full, 

Alaska Pacific stops processing until the truck arrives. They hire a third party to truck the 

waste to the fishmeal plant because this costs less than having their own truck and driver. 

The rotary screen is 8 – 10 years old and requires little to no maintenance. It is very 

reliable. The water that drains through the screen is discharged through the permitted 

outfall. Figure 11 shows the effluent sampling point. Alaska Pacific collects grab samples 

and analyzes them in their onsite laboratory for O&G, TSS, SS, and pH. They also have 

an onsite bacteriological lab for testing their roe products. They have not had any 

compliance problems. 
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Figure 1.Salmon processing line 

Figure 2. Loading block freezer 
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Figure 3. Block freezer 

Figure 4. Prepping blocks for shipping 
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Figure 5. Waste sluicing 
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Figure 6. Waste auger
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Figure7. Waste tote dumper 

Figure 8. Rotary screen interior 
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Figure 9. Rotary screen discharge 
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Figure 10. Truck loading hopper 
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Figure 11. Effluent sampling point