Suit Challenges Seafood Facility's Pollution Of Columbia Tributary

Illegal discharge from Pacific Seafood's Warrenton, Oregon, facility (shown above) has reduced dissolved oxygen levels in the Skipanon River to levels low enough to be toxic to fish.

In July 2002, NELC filed suit against the owners and operators of a seafood processing plant in Warrenton, Oregon, located in the northwestern corner of the state. NELC's suit alleges that the plant has been routinely violating the Clean Water Act, degrading local waterways and threatening endangered salmon and steelhead.

The plant discharges wastewater into the Skipanon River, a tributary of the Lower Columbia River. State-collected data indicate that the wastewater causes dissolved oxygen levels in the Skipanon to fall below levels considered toxic to aquatic life.

The suit was filed on behalf of the Oregon State Public Interest Research Group (OSPIRG) and two local citizens against three companies affiliated with the Pacific Seafood Group, self-described as "the largest, independently owned vertically integrated seafood company in North America." In addition to the Warrenton facility, Pacific Seafood Group owns and operates over 20 processing and distribution facilities on the West Coast. Pacific Seafood Group's brand names include Pacific Fresh, Snow Mist, Newport Shrimp and Bandon.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has found that dissolved oxygen levels are affected as far as four miles away from the discharge. "Wastewater from this facility is causing dissolved oxygen levels in the Skipanon River to fall close to zero," said NELC attorney Howard Hirsch. "Salmon and other aquatic life cannot survive in those conditions."

The Skipanon empties into the Columbia only one mile from the plant. The Lower Columbia has been designated as an "estuary of national significance" under the Clean Water Act. Approximately 2.5 million people live in the area's watershed. Hundreds of species of flora and fauna, including more than a dozen rare and endangered species, depend upon the Lower Columbia River Basin as permanent or migratory habitat. In fact, over 175 species of birds are found in the basin, which is one of the most important areas along the Pacific Flyway for migrating shorebirds.

Moreover, the Columbia River Basin has historically produced some of the world's largest runs of Pacific salmon and steelhead trout. Today, populations of the basin's anadromous fish (fish that migrate from the sea to fresh water to spawn, as salmon do) are seriously depleted. Many of those fish are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

Pacific Seafood's facility causes severe impacts on dissolved oxygen levels in the Skipanon River because its wastewater—water used to wash away unwanted parts of fish and then discharged into the river—is loaded with organic matter. Oxygen that would otherwise be available for aquatic life is consumed as this organic matter decomposes in the river.

The plant processes both conventional seafood, such as crab, shrimp and bottomfish, and surimi, a concentrate of fish protein used to make imitation crab and other products. During the summer months, when the surimi processing line is operating, the dissolved oxygen problem is particularly acute.

Adding to the problem, the plant's wastewater contains excessive levels of suspended solids and oil and grease. Suspended solids cloud the water and block the light plants need to grow, resulting in less food available for aquatic life. Oil and grease can adhere to the gills of fish, making it difficult for them to breathe and exacerbating the problem of low dissolved oxygen levels.

Pacific's pollution has also taken its toll on the area's natural beauty and on quality of life for local residents. The plant's decomposing wastewater has created a rotting stench residents report emanates from the river as far as a mile away. "For years, this facility has flouted the law, to the detriment of the river, the fish and wildlife that depend on it, and the community of Warrenton," said NELC's Howard Hirsch.

The plant can process up to 270,000 pounds of conventional seafood daily. NELC's lawsuit alleges that the facility has repeatedly violated national pollution standards for conventional seafood processing established by EPA in the mid-1970s.

"This facility is not meeting standards that were established during the Ford administration," said local resident and plaintiff Diane Heintz. "There are steps this plant could have taken a long time ago to reduce the impact of its operations."

The surimi processing line, added to the plant in 1995, operates only during the summer months. The facility can process up to 300 tons of Pacific whiting into surimi daily. Pacific Surimi, an affiliate of the Pacific Seafood Group, never obtained a new permit after adding the surimi line, even though it adds vast amounts of wastewater to the plant's discharge. When the surimi line is operating, the plant discharges up to 800,000 gallons of wastewater into the Skipanon River daily.

NELC's lawsuit alleges that the surimi plant is discharging wastewater without a Clean Water Act permit, and is violating the terms of a 1999 agreement with DEQ by discharging more pollution than that agreement allows. The lawsuit also alleges that the plant's non-surimi operation is violating the discharge limits in its Clean Water Act permit.

NELC's lawsuit seeks to require the company to take all necessary steps to meet water pollution control standards required by the Clean Water Act. In addition, NELC will ask the court to impose monetary penalties against the company for its past violations of the law, to ensure the company does not enjoy a financial benefit from disregarding the law.

"This is a classic case for citizen enforcement," said OSPIRG's Rhett Lawrence. "This facility has been violating the law with impunity for years."