### 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 Island Seafoods (owned by Pacific Seafood Group)

Plant Address 317 Shelikof, Kodiak, Alaska (NPDES Permit #

Date of Visit Tuesday, August 17, 2010 People Contacted John Whiddon, General Manager jwhiddon@pacseafood.com

206-783-3818

Website http://www.islandseafoods.com/

Seafood processed Cod, pollock, halibut, salmon, and rockfish Products Fresh and frozen whole fish (H&G)

Fresh and frozen fillets Range of annual production volume [ Confidential Business Inform ation Removed from this

report ] pounds/year Months of operation Year round Discharge type Grind and discharge



### Information presented in this report was obtained from discussions with Mr. John Whiddon, General Manager. The Island Seafoods website was also consulted for background information and photograph.

Background According to their website, Island Seafoods “started in 1995 as a small custom processing business serving Kodiak’s charter fishing fleet , and has grown today to supply seafood to customers and companies all over the world!

In 2003, Island Seafoods was acquired by the Paci fic Seafood Group, a family owned, vertically operated seafood company that is headquartered in Portland, Oregon. As a result of our relationship with Pacific Seafoods, we have gr own every year and now process both sport fish from the charter fleet as well as millions of pounds of cod, halibut, rockfish, and salmon for the

commercial market.”

Operations

Island Seafood is located on the Kodiak waterfr ont. In addition to their processing operations, they have a retail store (see Figure 1) and also sell seafood via the Internet. Island Seafood also provides services to sport fishermen. They 

### fillet, vacuum-pack, freeze and ship.

The plant operates year round, starting in January . They operate though the end of November or December when the quotas have been exhausted. The plant is then closed until the next year. Major products include fresh and frozen headed and gutted cod, pollock, halibut, salmon, and

rockfish.

### 2 Island Seafood has a particular focus on fresh fish. Fresh fish is transported by air.

Process

Raw fish unloaded on the dock is stored on ice in to tes. No refrigerated seawater is used. Fish are fed through hopper into the plant, then headed and gutted. A conveyor removes waste from the processing tables.

Coho and sockeye salmon fillets are produced with a mechanical filleter (splitter), then pin bones are removed, the fillets are inspected, vacuum packed, and frozen. Chum and pink salmon are headed and gutted. The roe sacs are removed and fr ozen. There is no market for fresh roe in the

U.S.

Rockfish processing is depicted in Figure 2.

Waste Management Solid waste from Island Seafoods is hauled to Kodiak Fish Meal Company, about 1 1/2 miles from the plant. Island Seafood pays a dumping fee and receives no share of Kodiak Fish Meal Company profit (they are not an owner). The m eal plant dumping fee is determined by tonnage and species.

Island Seafoods separates heads and other large waste pieces at the processing tables and places them in totes. The totes are moved by forklift a nd stored temporarily at a loading dock until they are picked up by the waste hauler. They fill a bout 50 totes per day. When the eagles congregate along the waterfront from mid January through March, extra measures are taken to avoid potential conflicts when handling waste. Totes remain covered until they are dumped and the waste truck is monitored closely to en sure eagles do not enter the truck.

Island Seafood contracts with a trucking service to pick up the waste and take it to the fish meal plant. They have had no problems getting regular pick up and the trucking company is responsive when extra pick ups are needed.

Wastewater Equipment wash down water, blood, and smaller pieces of waste fish are sluiced into floor drains, collected in a sump, and then pumped through a rotary screen. The screen is located on the same floor level as the rest of the plant. At the time of the site visit, the plant used an externally-fed screen 4 feet long with a 5 mm mesh screen. Mr. Whiddon explained that he planned to make improvements to the overall system for 2011. He plans to replace the existing screen with a bigger capacity internal-feed screen with a 3 mm mesh screen. Because of the hydraulics, design of the system upgrade required a civil engineer. They also require some building permit waivers

Wastewater from the screen is discharged through th e plant’s outfall in the harbor. They take one sample each week and it is analyzed at a Kodiak lab. They estimate wastewater flow using the meter on purchased city water (water flow is monitored daily). Discharges are about 23,000 gallons per day, and 1 million pounds per month of TSS.

### 3 Figure 1. Island Seafoods (Source: http://www.islandseafoods.com/)

Figure 2. Processing Rock Fish (Source: http://www.islandseafoods.com/)