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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 Trident Seafoods Cordova North 

Plant Address Cordova, Alaska 

NPDES Permit # AKG520493 

Date of Visit Thursday, August 19, 2010 

People Contacted Leo Vargas, Plant Manager Rick Isaacson, Prince William 

Sound Operations Manager 

Seafood processed Salmon (pink, chum, and sockeye) 

Products Canned salmon 

Frozen, whole (H&G) and fillets 

Fresh, whole (H&G) and fillets 

Salmon roe (Ikura and “fresh” roe) 

Range of annual production volume 30 to 45 million pounds 

Months of operation Salmon season (May/June through September) 

Discharge type Screened wastewater and some ground solids discharged 

through NPDES permitted outfall 

Website http://www.tridentseafoods.com/ 

Trident owns two plants in Cordova. The Cordova South plant specializes in fresh and 

frozen high value fish. This plant, Cordova North, is a high volume plant producing 

canned and frozen pink salmon. In 2009 they processed about 20 million pounds of pink 

salmon and 10 million pounds of other species. In 2010 they were anticipating processing 

about 45 million pounds of fish. In comparison, the Cordova South plant projected 

processing 14 million pounds in 2010. Figure 1 shows an exterior view of the plant. 

The Cordova North plant has 12 refrigerated seawater (RSW) holding tanks and 

purchases city water for their fresh water needs. They operate four canning lines. Two 

produce traditional canned salmon (including skin and bones) and two produce 

skinless/boneless product. The skinless/boneless lines are equipped with new can fillers 

that index the fish so that the fillets are vertical in the can. 

Trident recovers the salmon roe and processes it into Ikura and unbrined “fresh” roe. 

Both products are shipped to customers frozen. 

Waste Management. In 2009 Trident started up a recovery plant located next door to the 

Cordova North plant. Waste is transported from the cannery to the recovery plant through 

three stainless steel pipes that can be seen in Figure 1. Heads are transported separately 

from combined guts, frames, and skin. Clean-in-place (CIP) wastewater is transported to 
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the recovery plant through one of the two black plastic pipes. Wastewater is returned 

from the recovery plant to the cannery through the second black plastic pipe for disposal 

via the cannery outfall. 

In 2007 Trident began hauling a portion of its waste to an off shore disposal point, with 

the remainder of the waste ground and discharged through their permitted outfall. The 

start-up of the by-products plant has reduced the amount of waste discharged. In 2010, 

Trident discharged through the outfall when the by-products plant was not operating 

(e.g., when production was too low to start up the by-products plant). Waste that could 

not be incorporated into the fish oil and fish hydrolysate (i.e., bones) was hauled off shore 

in the gut boat Mud Bay (Figures 2 and 3) for disposal. 

Figure 1. Processing plant 
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Figure 2. Plant and waste disposal boat 

Figure 3. Waste disposal boat 
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