Unisea to pay $1.9M for Unalaska pollution

WASHINGTON -- A Seattle-based seafood processing company that operates mostly in Alaska will pay $1.9 million in penalties and for the cost of cleaning up ammonia and other waste it discharged from its plant in the Aleutians.
Unisea agreed to the payments to settle allegations it violated federal and state environmental laws, U.S. Attorney Karen L. Loeffler announced today.
Beginning in 2005, the company discharged ammonia and other pollutants from its facility in Unalaska into surrounding waters. It did so without a permit, in violation of the Clean Water Act, Loeffer said. The company also agreed that it failed to notify authorities of two large releases of ammonia from its facility in December 2007, a violation of federal and state environmental reporting laws.
Unisea also must perform a benthic survey of the sea floor, potentially clean up the site's fish waste pile, as well as implement a comprehensive environmental compliance plan to prevent future violations.
Unisea operates its principal seafood processing facility on southeast Amaknak Island, in Unalaska. Over a three-year period, the company released anhydrous ammonia as well as propylene glycol, unscreened seafood processing wastewater, crab waste, stick water, fishmeal, and foam from outfalls at its Dutch Harbor facility. That violated the terms of a 2003 EPA permit, the government said.
The company also failed to properly notify authorities of two large ammonia releases in December 2007. Those releases, of approximately 17,000 pounds, exceeded the reportable quantity for ammonia.
Facilities must report releases in excess of 100 pounds. The Unisea releases were not reported to the appropriate federal, state or local authorities until the middle of January 2008.
In a previous agreement with the State of Alaska, Unisea employee Arthur Aliment pleaded guilty to a criminal charge of failing to report the release of a hazardous substance.
Aliment was the Unisea worker responsible for reporting releases to the appropriate federal, state and local authorities. Aliment in January was sentenced to 45 days in jail with the time suspended, a $7,500 fine with $3,750 suspended, 60 hours of community service and one year of probation.