Seafood Company to Spend Nearly $2 Million to Resolve Clean Water Act Violations
Icicle Seafoods Inc. and its subsidiary, Evening Star Inc., agreed
to spend nearly $2 million to resolve Clean Water Act (CWA) violations
associated with the operation of the M/V Northern Victor, a seafood
processing vessel, in Alaska's Udagak Bay, EPA announced on Sept. 20.
The U.S. Department of Justice ordered a $900,000 civil penalty.
Icicle already has spent approximately $1 million cleaning up an
historic seafood waste pile that created a one-acre "dead zone" on the
Alaskan seafloor.
EPA Region 10 Administrator Elin Miller stated that seafood
processors need to look for new ways to protect the health of the
seafloor, starting with preventing waste piles. "Contrary to popular
belief, waste piles on the seafloor do have a long-lasting, damaging
effect on the environment," Miller said. "This waste, particularly the
bony material, doesn't 'just go away'. It degrades slowly, causing harm
for decades."
The violations occurred aboard the M/V Northern Victor, which
operates in Udagak Bay on the eastern side of Unalaska Island. The
vessel is permitted to discharge seafood processing waste by an
EPA-issued National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES)
permit.
Several violations were observed during an inspection conducted in
2003. Following the inspection, Icicle made significant improvements
aboard the vessel to remedy the violations. However, the companies
failed to comply with one major provision of the permit, which required
the cleanup of a historic seafood waste pile created by the vessel's
discharges prior to 1999.
After the U.S. Department of Justice filed suit against Icicle and
Evening Star in 2006, the companies undertook the removal of the
historic waste pile. They subsequently agreed to pay a $900,000 civil
penalty.