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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 

Plant Address Ketchikan, Alaska 

NPDES Permit # AKG520002 

Date of Visit Thursday, August 12, 2010 

People Contacted John Webby, General Manager Southeast Operations 

Company Website www.tridentseafoods.com 

Seafood processed Salmon, mostly pink some other salmon species 

Products Canned salmon 

Frozen salmon roe 

Range of annual production volume 

Months of operation June - September 

Discharge type Pipe solids to Alaska Protein Recovery 

Discharge screened wastewater through permitted 

outfall 

Mr. Webby worked at this plant from 1972 to 1986, before it was owned by Trident. He 

returned to the plant after Trident bought it in 1995. Seafood processing operations began 

on the site in 1904. The plant was rebuilt in 1946 and again in 1966. 

Operations are limited to canning pink salmon and freezing salmon roe. Although they 

produce filets for their skinless boneless canned product, they transport higher value 

salmon species by tender to the Trident/NorQuest plant on the north side of Ketchikan. 

The Trident/NorQuest plant specializes in making fresh and frozen products and operates 

a small smoked salmon line. 

Alaska Protein Recovery (APR), which is co-owned by Trident, operates a seafood byproducts recovery plant on a barge moored at the Trident dock. 

Waste Management History. Prior to 2001, Trident ground waste from the plant and 

discharged it into Tongass Narrows through their NPDES permitted outfall. The original 

permit was for a zone of deposit of less than one acre. Over time, the waste expanded into 

three piles totaling more than 1 acre. Also, the solids became anaerobic, generating 

methane gas. Accumulated gas was released in pile eruptions. To comply with a consent 

decree issued after an EPA enforcement action, Trident and their neighbor, Alaska 

General Seafood (AGS) stopped discharging solids and instead hauled them off shore for 

disposal. Between 2001 and 2006, Trident contracted with a tender with large holds to 
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haul their waste off shore. They also remediated the pile by dragging to aerate and 

consolidate the solids. 

In 2007, APR began operations in Ketchikan. Trident transferred its waste to APR’s 

barge, while ground bones were returned to Trident for outfall discharge. In 2008 Trident 

became a partner of APR. Chuck Bundrant, owner of Trident Seafoods, invested 

$600,000 to connect the Trident Ketchikan cannery to the barge. This includes a system 

to manage heads as food grade product and pump them to the barge. 

APR now takes 100% of the waste from AGS and Trident Ketchikan (south) which are 

located adjacent to the barge. Waste is pumped from AGS to Trident and then from 

Trident to the barge. APR also processes the salmon heads from Trident NorQuest 

(Ketchikan north) and E.C. Philips, two small plants located on the other side of 

Ketchikan. At present, APR can’t take the guts from the two small plants because they 

decompose too quickly. Waste volume processed at APR is made up of heads (about 

60%) and guts (30-40%). 

Mr. Webby explained that APR is taking about the waste water from Salmon, about 

800,000 lb/day of and could handle 1.3 to 1.5 million pounds/day. 

The agreements with the other seafood processors differ. The agreement with E.C. 

Philips is open-ended, meaning Trident can stop taking E.C. Philips fish heads at will. 

The agreement with AGS required Trident to take the AGS waste even if the APR 

process is not operating. Mr. Webby explained Trident took all of AGS’s waste two years 

ago, none last year, and are taking all of their waste this year. 

The less the waste is ground, the better, in order to preserve the quality of the oil. Also, 

the more the waste is ground the more soluble BOD in the screened wastewater stream 

discharged through Trident’s outfall into Tongass Narrows. 

Mr. Webby recalled that Ladd McCauley tried a hydrolysate process in Juneau in 1997 

but it was not economically viable. APR makes hydrolysate, but he noted that the key for 

success of the APR process is the high price they can get for their food grade salmon oil. 

The barge (including product) is towed to Seattle in the winter and anchored in fresh 

water. While the barge is moored in Ketchikan, Trident supplies the barge with water, 

power, and takes off the sewage. The process could be built on shore at the cannery site if 

land was available. Mr. Webby is hoping to put another building on his site, but this will 

require approval of the fire marshal. He noted that there is only a limited amount of 

heavy industrial property in Ketchikan. A mile of the harbor has been dedicated to the 

cruise ship berths and related docks. Other sites for possible expansion are limited. 

Gravina Island, on the other side of Tongass Narrows, has no electricity or water supply. 

Ward Cove is an industrial site north of town where Louisiana-Pacific used to operate. 

Unfortunately, Ward Cove is an impaired water body and Superfund site, with16,000 

logs on the bottom. Clean up costs were estimated at $200 million. L-P settled at $27 

million. It is unlikely that other industrial activities will locate at Ward Cove. 
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Cannery Operations. The cannery operates 24 hours per day, 191⁄2 hours of production 

The rest of the time is for meals and clean-up. Figure 1 shows the dock area where the 

fish are offloaded from boats into the plant. After tenders are emptied, they are filled 

back up with slush ice (Figures 2 and 3). 

The cannery uses city water, adding extra chlorine to the water used in the canning 

retorts. Mr. Webby noted that canned salmon is an inspected, ready-to-eat product and 

must meet food safety requirements. 

The traditional product puts 66% of the fish into the can. In the last few years consumers 

are interested in skinless boneless canned salmon. This product puts only 25% of the fish 

into the can. At Trident, the difference becomes waste, because they have not made 

satisfactory mince. They put in a mincer but because the blood is still in the frame did not 

produce an acceptable product. In making surimi, the fish is washed multiple times. If 

salmon is washed, the typical salmon color is lost and the product is unappetizing. 

Mr. Webby explained the key to success in his industry is canning quickly when the fish 

are running. Figure 4 shows the fish holding tanks where fish are kept immediately 

before canning. 

Waste Transfer. Waste is transferred from AGS through three HDPE pipes. 

Trident/APR received permission from ADEC to use HDPE rather than stainless steel for 

transfer of salmon heads destined for food grade oil production. The three lines are: 

1. guts 

2. heads and skins 

3. cleaning-in-place1

 (CIP) wastes. 

Occasionally, the transfer lines are flushed with caustic and sanitizer. Flush water is 

discharged through the NPDES permitted outfall. 

Heads come from E.C. Philips and Trident/NorQuest in refrigerated totes. The heads are 

mixed with heads from Trident and AGS and pumped with a peristaltic pump to the 

barge. The other wastes are dewatered and transferred to the barge in a separate 

conveyance system. 

Trident has equipment to grind waste that cannot be processed on the barge. This 

equipment includes two Vaughan chopper pumps (one is a backup) and two Autio 

grinders. 

Trident monitors its discharge for grind size. They have not measured the O&G or TSS 

concentration in the screened solids discharge and don’t know if their discharge would 

meet the BPT limits for non-remote Alaskan seafood processors. 

 

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

and associated fittings, without disassembly. 
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Plant operations. Trident operates Seven canning lines. In addition to lines for standard 

size cans, they have a line for large, institutional-sized cans and another for small cans. 

Customers are requesting new products. For example, Costco demands “oriented” 

skinless boneless salmon (looks like canned albacore tuna). This is a relatively new 

product. This line was idle this year. 

At the butchering line, the heads are managed separately from the other wastes. Heads go 

to a common tank and then are taken across to APR. The waste produced from a fish 

butchered for canning is 17% head; for frozen, 15% head. 

The plant is built on pilings. Hot water released from the retorts drains directly under the 

dock and is mixed with the tides. Mr. Webby mentioned that refrigeration condensation is 

another wastewater that is not discharged through the outfall. 

The retorts use extra-chlorinated city water. Extra chlorine is added for food safety 

reasons. Trident’s retorts use 2500 gallons per cook and they can run up to 66 cooks per 

day. Hot cans removed from the retorts are taken to the can cooling area. The through 

time from the fish entering the building to the cooled can is about 6 hours. 

Mr. Webby explained that they can’t sell the canned salmon in Alaska because it hasn’t 

been through all the required food safety inspections. Those occur in Seattle. Seafood 

producers association tests the product in Seattle. 

In addition to canned salmon, the plant produces frozen roe (ikura). Major markets 

include Russian communities in Bellevue, WA and in the east coast of the U.S. 

Figure 5 and Figure 6 shows the roe being processed through a brine washer and Figure 7 

shows workers picking imperfect eggs from the roe. 

Discussion. Even with the barge, there is some solids discharge. APR must remove the 

bone from the protein hydrolysate and does not have a cost effective way to produce a 

bone meal product. For this reason, the bone is currently discharged at sea as a solid 

waste. Also, in the event the APR process goes down, Trident will grind its waste (and 

the waste it receives from AGS) and haul it for off-shore disposal. 

Mr. Webby noted that Trident invested in the APR system but would not have done so if 

EPA had not prohibited discharging solids through their outfall in the Tongass Narrows. 

He noted that hydrolysate production covers operating costs, but doesn’t make a profit. 

Salmon oil production is profitable, with the current oil prices. 

Trident built a by-product recovery plant in Cordova. This plant uses the APR process, 

with a slightly different evaporator technology. 

Ms. Bicknell asked if the city of Ketchikan had an adequate electricity supply for 

Trident’s operations. Mr. Webby explained that the city’s electricity is supplied by 
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hydroelectric generating plants at four dams. The plants have adequate capacity but need 

some infrastructure to tie the systems together. Mr. Webby thought the city had no 

shortage of water or treatment capacity. The Trident operation uses about 1.5 MGD of 

city water. 

If screening is required, Mr. Webby noted some available screening devices: rotary 

screens, parabolic screens, mesh belt. 

Figure 1. Fish Offloading Area 
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Figure 2. Adding ice to tender 

Figure 3. Ice in tender 
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Figure 4. Fish holding tanks 

Figure 5. Scooping roe from brine 
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Figure 6. Roe processing 
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Figure 7. Roe picking