Inaccurate Water Pollution Reporting Results in $20,000 Fine Against International Seafoods

The Northwest regional office of the E.P.A. today announced that International Seafoods of Alaska, Incorporated (ISA) has agreed to pay a $20,000 penalty for violations of the Clean Water Act. The company submitted numerous inaccurate wastewater discharge reports from its Kodiak, Alaska facility over a 2 year period.

The E.P.A. issued a Countrywide Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit to ISA in 1998 that allows for discharge of a limited amount of fish processing waste into Saint Paul Harbor in Alaska. The permit also requires daily monitoring of the discharges and regular reporting to the EPA.

According to the Consent Arrangement and Final Order, International Seafoods submitted 10 reports between July 2000 and July 2002 showing that it exceeded its discharge limits for certain pollutants including oil and grease. Later, the company produced information indicating that all the reports were prepared based upon outdated waterflow estimates and were, therefore, inaccurate. ISA submitted corrected reports which showed only one exceedance of the monthly average for oil and grease in February 2002.

"It may seem trivial when a company sends in government paperwork that is wrong," said Marcia Combes, EPA's Director of Alaska Operations in Anchorage. "But the backbone of knowing the extent of pollution and preventing it lies with the reporting system set up for these companies."

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