EPA proposes $5,859 UniSea settlement over Dutch Harbor stormwater

A seafood plant in Dutch Harbor let non-stormwater flow into a drainage system emptying to Iliuliuk Harbor for nearly three years, and went five years without updating its stormwater pollution prevention plan, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The agency has proposed settling for $5,859. Public comment closes Wednesday.

EPA rated the environmental harm from the violations low on its own settlement worksheet, while classifying Iliuliuk Harbor as a high-quality water.

The larger share of the penalty, $4,688, covers the pollution prevention plan, which EPA says went un-updated from July 2020 to July 2025 and left required details off its site map, including where past spills had occurred. The discharge lapse, from June 2022 to April 2025, accounted for $1,172. The worksheet says severity ratings reflect both how serious a violation is and how long it ran.

The case is an expedited settlement, a streamlined track EPA uses for violations it considers minor, commenced and concluded in a single document. UniSea has certified that the violations have been corrected. In the agreement it neither admits nor denies them, and the notice records no other response from the company.

The same complex on Amaknak Island paid about $1.9 million fifteen years ago over discharges from its outfalls, a case about what was entering the water rather than the drainage and recordkeeping issues at stake here.

Comments go to EPA Region 10 under docket CWA-10-2026-0190 and are due Wednesday.