Pacific Seafood is rerouting its fish processing wastewater into the Columbia River, above. NELC is closely following the permit review process. Photo: Getty Images.

Portland, OR—Detailed written comments submitted to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) bore fruit this spring, as NELC continued its efforts to strengthen pollution limits on seafood processors discharging wastewater into the Skipanon and Columbia rivers.

NELC has worked on various fronts to protect the rivers since filing suit against three Pacific Seafood Group subsidiaries in July 2002 on behalf of Oregon Public Interest Research Group and two Warrenton-area residents.

The federal lawsuit targets the facilities’ chronic non-compliance with the Clean Water Act. Last spring, after DEQ turned a blind eye to the illegal discharge of surimi wastes (surimi is a fish paste used in various food products), NELC stepped in and secured a court-ordered injunction against Pacific Surimi Co. to prevent further discharge into the Skipanon River.

Following that success, NELC closely monitored Pacific Surimi’s application for a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) discharge permit.

In early 2006, NELC learned that DEQ was planning to accede, without putting adequate safeguards in place, to Pacific Surimi’s plan to simply reroute its wastewater discharge from the Skipanon River into the Columbia River.

DEQ was prepared to accept the company’s perfunctory analysis of water quality data and to overlook the potential impacts of the high strength surimi wastewater on aquatic health—despite the fact that Pacific Surimi was being sued by NELC for years of water pollution violations.

“Pacific Surimi planned to begin discharging into the Columbia River without fully understanding or addressing all the environmental ramifications,” said NELC attorney Joe Mann. “The company’s proposal was unacceptable.”

NELC immediately began working with local environmental groups to press DEQ for a re-examination of the proposed permit limits and for an in-depth study on how the relocated discharge would affect aquatic health in the Columbia River.

NELC attorneys requested a meeting with DEQ officials, and when they were granted that meeting in late March, they brought along an environmental engineer to address the deficiencies in the company’s water quality analysis.

On April 11, DEQ issued a “Final NPDES Permit Evaluation Review Report” for Pacific Surimi.

In response to the issues raised by NELC, DEQ determined that “the best way to resolve these technical differences...is to require additional monitoring.”

Accordingly, DEQ added additional water quality monitoring requirements and studies to the final permit.

NELC is in the process of commenting on the company’s proposed water quality study, and the Clean Water Act enforcement suit against Pacific Surimi and its parent company, Pacific Seafood Group, is scheduled to go to trial in October 2006.

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