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 Alaska General Seafoods 

Plant Address Ketchikan, Alaska 

NPDES Permit # AKG 520090 

Date of Visit Thursday, August 12, 2010 

People Contacted Gordon Lindquist, Vice President, General Manager 

Company Website http://www.akgen.com/ 

Seafood processed Salmon, mostly pink some other salmon species 

Products Canned salmon 

Fresh and frozen salmon 

Salmon roe 

Range of annual production volume 10 – 12 million pounds in 2010 (forecast) 

Months of operation June - September 

Discharge type Pipe solids to Alaska Protein Recovery via Trident 

Discharge screened wastewater through permitted 

outfall 

The New England Fish Company started seafood processing operations at this site in the 

south end of Ketchikan about 100 years ago. Alaska General Seafood (AGS) rebuilt the 

plant in 1994 and made further modernizations in 1999. About 85% of their production is 

canned pink salmon; the remainder is fresh and frozen salmon - pink and other species. 

AGS is one of two large canneries in Ketchikan. The other, immediately adjacent to their 

facility, is operated by Trident Seafoods. Alaska Protein Recovery (APR) [Confidential 

Business Information (CBI), removed from this report] operates a seafood by-products 

recovery plant on a barge moored at the Trident dock. AGS began sending 100% of its 

waste to APR in the 2010 season. 

At the time of the visit, Gordon Lindquist, the AGS General Manager, forecast that they 

would process 10 to 12 million pounds of salmon in the 2010 season. Mr. Lindquist 

commented that ADF&G had estimated Southeast Alaska’s 2010 pink salmon harvest at 

19 million fish, so it appeared that their forecast was low. 

AGS takes the plant out of winter storage in April. Salmon canning operations begin in 

the 4th week of June and last until the end of August. AGS also operates a cannery in 

Bristol Bay, for a short, one-month season running from mid-June to mid-July. AGS has 

verbal contracts with fishermen. Among the services they provide the fishermen is to 
2

send out tenders to bring the catch into the processing plant. This allows the fishermen to 

remain in the fishing grounds and continue fishing. 

Figure 1 shows three HDPE plastic transfer pipes, two for waste and one for CIP 

(cleaning in place1

) wastewater that [CBI, removed from this report] 

1. Food grade waste, which has never touched the floor (mostly heads). [CBI, 

removed from this report] 

2. Frames, skin, guts, and other trimmings. This is waste that has touched the floor 

from the cannery fish house, the cannery, and the fresh frozen lines. [CBI, 

removed from this report] 

Fish heads, pumped to APR in the 6-inch HDPE pipe, are not dewatered. Waste traveling 

in the 6-inch line includes all of the water. Waste traveling in the 4-inch line is dewatered 

on a 0.100 inch mesh rotary screen. 

AGS operates five canning lines. [CBI removed from this report] 

After cans are sealed, they are stacked and loaded into retorts (cylindrical pressure 

cookers) and cooked at 246°F for 75 minutes. The hot water is drained and the cans are 

cooled to 110°F. The cooled, dry cans are stacked onto pallets. These pallets of unlabeled 

cans, known as “bright stacks” are packed into 20-foot vans and shipped to Seattle. In 

Seattle they are labeled for various customers. 

In addition to canning, AGS produces frozen whole salmon. After cleaning, the salmon 

are placed on freezing racks and blast frozen for 5 to 6 hours. The frozen fish are glazed 

and boxed or toted. 

AGS also process salmon roe. Figures 2 and Figure 3 show employees sorting and 

cleaning roe skeins. The roe is brined and separated into individual eggs to produce Ikura. 

This frozen product is sold in Asia and Europe. 

During salmon season, the plant operates seven days/week, from 8AM to 11:30 PM 

followed by a cleaning shift. The processing equipment is cleaned-in-place and the 

wastewater is discharged through the outfall line. 

Plant wastewater drains to a common sump, equipped with a Vaughn grinder pump. This 

type of pump is used throughout the Alaska seafood processing industry. Screened solids 

are piped to Trident/APR while the wastewater is discharged through the AGS outfall. 

Waste Management History. The 2010 salmon season was the first year that AGS sent 

100% of its waste to APR. Waste management has changed over the last several years. 

 

1

 Clean-in-place is a method of cleaning the interior surfaces of pipes, vessels, process equipment, filters, 

and associated fittings, without disassembly. 
3

 2001-2002 – grind and discharge via permitted outfall in Tongass Narrows; 

however, the zone of deposit exceeded the allowable size, so EPA required at-sea 

disposal. 

 2003-2009 – grind and discharge at sea. Waste was loaded into the hold of an old 

fishing boat, and then pumped out. Discharge at sea is allowed in the NPDES 

General Permit. Grinding is required. 

 2010 – All waste is transferred to APR. 

Grinding waste to less than 0.5 inch in any dimension required several steps. Heads were 

ground in a hammermill. The ground heads combined with other waste then passed 

through the Vaughan chopper pump, Muffin Monster, dewatering screen, and Autio 

grinder, and was then pumped into the boat. Dewatering was accomplished with a rotary 

screen, 0.100 inch mesh size. Dewatered waste was pumped to the vessel using a 

progressive cavity pump after it passed through the Autio grinder. In 2009, waste was 

hauled daily during the salmon season to Bold Island by the Western Pioneer or 

Chichagof Shuttle vessel. These vessels have a capacity of 180,000 pounds each (in terms 

of pounds of waste). Waste was pumped from the vessels. Cost for waste disposal in 

2009 was $139,553. 

The disposal vessel traveled about 12 miles out, to Bold Island. One trip required about 

an hour and a half to travel to the disposal site and about 1 hour to unload the boat and an 

hour and a half to return. The boat made one trip per day. 

When AGS converted from discharging ground up solid waste through its Tongass 

Narrows outfall to hauling it to Bold Island, they installed a concrete pad on land with 

waste disposal equipment at a capital cost of $165,000. No alterations or expansion to the 

existing dock were required. 

[CBI removed from this report] 

Discussion. Mr. Lindquist mentioned that AGS operates another cannery in Bristol Bay. 

He noted that it would not be feasible to install a by-products recovery plant at Bristol 

Bay, due to the very short (one month) season. Ms. Guzzo and Ms. Bicknell assured Mr. 

Lindquist that EPA was not considering changing the classification of Bristol Bay to nonremote, so there would be no change in discharge limits for the AGS plant in Bristol Bay. 

Mr. Lindquist summarized the challenge of the seafood processing business as “we are 

price takers, not price makers.” He meant he was not in control of the price, due to 

fluctuations in supply and demand and international currency value. He noted that the 

size of the harvest varies considerably year-to-year. When they don’t have a large 

harvest, they don’t make money because they are using less than design capacity. 

Seafood processors need deep pockets. Mr. Lindquist suggested that for the economic 

analysis, EPA must use data from multiple years. 

When asked the biggest problem with hauling waste for off shore disposal, Mr. Lindquist 

mentioned the cost of the vessel and its maintenance. He noted that because the plant 
4

can’t operate without a means of disposing of its waste, when they were hauling their 

waste off shore, they should have had two vessels to provide redundancy. They operated 

with only one vessel, however because they could not afford a second. 

Mr. Lindquist also opined that grinding the waste prior to disposal is nonsense. First, it is 

impossible to get to <0.5 inch in all dimensions for some materials, for example fish 

stomach linings. He noted that large animals will eat heads and frames, but not the finely 

ground waste. In his opinion, this results in a build up of finely ground waste on the sea 

bottom. 

Although hauling the waste off shore is problematic, he would not truck the waste 

because there is too much waste and it presents significant materials handing problems. 

Further, trucking large volumes of waste is not practical in Ketchikan because of the 

cruise ship passenger pedestrian traffic. 

Figure 1. Pipes transferring waste from Alaska Glacier to Trident for transfer to Alaska 

Protein Recovery. 
5

\\ 

Figure 2. Roe processing 

Figure 3. Roe processing