Ellen Lockyer, KSKA – Anchorage
A Seattle-based fish processor has been slapped with a waste discharge violation by the Environmental Protection Agency. Icicle Seafoods has agreed to pay close to $6,000 in fines for Clean Water Act violations that occurred in Norton Sound in June of last year.
According to the EPA compliance officer Derrick Schrul, Icicle’s processing vessel, the R.M. Thorstenson discharged 4,000 pounds of seafood processing waste into Norton Sound for 15 hours without first obtaining a National Pollutant Discharge Eliminating System permit and that is a violation of the Clean Water Act.
The incident occurred outside the three-mile limit within federal waters, which are subject to federal permits. Schrul says Icicle did self report the incident.
The confusion could have come from a recent transfer of permitting authority from the EPA to the state.
Since its introduction in 1972, the NPDES permit program is responsible for significant improvements to the country’s water quality.
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