SALEM — Seafood processors in Oregon are blasting some new regulations for treating wastewater as overly restrictive, saying they could put plants along the coast out of business.

The state Department of Environmental Quality updated its permit requirements for seafood companies in October 2020, designed to remove harmful byproducts, bacteria and heavy metals from processing wastewater before it is discharged back into the ocean.

Industry officials, however, argue the conditions are unnecessarily burdensome and in some cases technically impossible to achieve, forcing processors to clean wastewater to be far cleaner than drinking water.

DEQ claims the updated permits are necessary to protect the environment and human health.

If not properly treated, wastewater from seafood processing can contribute to hypoxic “dead zones” for aquatic species, according to the agency. Bacteria can make people sick if they surf or swim in the water, and metals can bioaccumulate in the food web.

Already, one permit issued last year to a processing facility in Warrenton is being challenged in court, and the Portland-based West Coast Seafood Processors Association is asking lawmakers for help.

Lori Steele, the group’s executive director, testified April 26 during an informational hearing before the House Committee on Climate, Energy and Environment.

“I can attest that the current situation is dire,” Steele said. “Many of our facilities are facing the threat of closure because of infeasible and unworkable permit conditions.”

Permit backlog

Before 2020, the last time DEQ revised its general permit for seafood processors — known as a 900-J permit — was 2006.

The agency is responsible for developing and issuing permits under the federal Clean Water Act. Normally, regulators are required to update the permits every five years to reflect changes in science and available technology.

When the last 900-J permit expired in 2011, DEQ was facing a significant backlog in permits across the board, said Jennifer Wigal, the agency’s Water Quality Division administrator.

At the time, Wigal said, 85% of water quality permits had expired. That backlog has since been reduced to less than 65%.

It wasn’t until 2015 that work began in earnest to update the 900-J permit. DEQ met with the legislative coastal caucus, held public hearings and met one-on-one with several seafood processing companies along the coast to hear input, Wigal said.

“This is an industry that has a really keen interest in those requirements,” Wigal said. “There’s also been, I would say, a lot of time invested on the part of DEQ to make sure we understand how the industry operates.”

Six facilities are now covered by the updated 900-J permit. Nine others have applied for an individual permit, tailored to their unique operations.

Industry concerns

Despite meeting directly with seafood processors, Steele, with the WCSPA, said the industry’s recommendations fell on deaf ears.

The 2020 general permit includes limits for fish solids, biological material, oil and grease, collectively referred to as “technology-based effluent limits,” or TBELs. These materials have historically been captured through screening, and can be recycled to make fish meal that goes into organic fertilizer and pet food.

But the new permit also adds requirements for ammonia, chlorine, enterococci and E. coli bacteria.

None of these pollutants come from seafood processing operations, Steele said. Chlorine is found in tap water from municipal water systems; ammonia is present in seawater, largely due to fertilizer runoff; and the largest source of bacteria is seagull droppings.

Yet seafood processors are the ones that now must figure out how to clean the water, Steele said.

Doing so could cost processors $3 million to $10 million to install new equipment, and $100,000 per month to run the systems, the WCSPA estimates. That might force some processors, particularly smaller businesses, to either close or relocate, Steele said.

“This is getting really urgent for some of our companies,” she said. “Nobody can operate with a permit where they’re out of compliance every single day.”

DEQ acknowledged that certain pollutants do not need to be added by seafood processors to be present in the wastewater. Regardless, if levels pose a threat to health, then the agency is required by law to set a limit.

The commercial fishing industry in Oregon generates $558 million in economic activity each year and employs 9,200 people. Having local processors is critical because they provide a market for fishermen’s catches without traveling long distances.

Treating metals

Individual permits are also raising concerns among processors.

Pacific Seafood, which has eight processing plants along the Oregon coast, was issued a permit for its Pacific Bio-Products facility in Warrenton in February 2022. The plant takes fish byproducts from other processors to make fish meal.

When the permit was issued, Dan Occhipinti, chief administrative officer for Pacific Seafood, said he was stunned to see that DEQ imposed limits for certain metals such as copper, mercury, zinc and thallium, which had never before been included.

Not only were they written into the permit, but the limits are far lower than even drinking water standards. For example, copper was set at nearly 30,000 times lower than the EPA’s drinking water standard, and trace mercury was set at nearly 10,000 times lower than the drinking water standard, he said.

“It’s just totally mind-boggling,” Occhinpinti said. “This seemed to come out of left field.”

Occhinpinti said the company’s environmental health and safety team quickly determined they would not be able to comply with the limits.

They called several engineering firms, which stated it would be impossible to meet the requirements unless they could build giant settling ponds to treat wastewater. Occhinpinti said they simply do not have the space.

Pacific Seafood filed a legal challenge to the permit, which is still pending before an administrative law judge.

Like ammonia, chlorine and bacteria, seafood processors do not add these metals as part of their operations, said Amy Wentworth, director of environmental health and safety for Pacific Seafood. She said the new permit conditions have left the industry feeling targeted.

“We have permits that are not based on any science that we can see, and they’re certainly not technologically achievable,” Wentworth said.

In the case of Pacific Bio-Oregon, DEQ claims wastewater samples showed copper, mercury, zinc and thallium were all present in amounts that could harm aquatic life.

Wigal, with DEQ, said it is possible that other individual permits could also include limits for metals, based on monitoring and where the wastewater is discharged.

A path forward

Wigal said the state is committed to helping processors find solutions and develop compliance schedules that will allow them the flexibility to make necessary upgrades.

“We have a long history of working with facilities,” she said. “While our requirements are going to be changing over time, we’ve never been in a position where we’d be telling a facility to shut down.”

The industry has looked to the Oregon Legislature for support.

A pair of bills — Senate Bill 1025 and House Bill 3337 — would have forbidden DEQ from imposing restrictions on seafood processors that are more stringent than the federal Clean Water Act, or that would “result in substantial and widespread economic and social impacts on coastal communities.”

Neither bill has advanced in the 2023 legislative session.

Lawmakers did have the April 26 informational hearing, during which they questioned DEQ about the permitting process and 900-J permit requirements.

Steele said she came away from the hearing optimistic, but described the process as frustrating.

“We’re working toward trying to navigate a path forward with DEQ, but it has been a terrible situation,” Steele said. “It’s just been one of those things where this was going to come to a head, and it’s going to be really bad.”