State drafts renewal of Westward Seafoods' wastewater permit for Captains Bay plant

The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation on Monday released a preliminary draft permit that would renew Westward Seafoods' wastewater discharge permit for its processing plant on Captains Bay in Unalaska.

The company gets the first look, with comments due Nov. 17. DEC will then put out a draft permit for a 30-day public comment period. The current permit expires Feb. 28, 2027, according to DEC's permit issuance plan.

The plant processes seafood and turns heads, offal and unusable tissue into fish meal. Water used in processing runs through a 0.5-millimeter screen to catch pieces of tissue and is then discharged into the bay without further treatment.

The screened wastewater leaves through a pipe that ends 1,200 feet from the plant, north of a rocky reef called Bailey's Ledge, about 61 feet deep at low tide. From October through June, that line also carries stickwater, the fish tissue liquid removed when meal is dried. From July through September, stickwater is typically discharged by vessel instead. A second outfall under the plant dock carries saltwater and cooling water from the meal plant.

The draft permit includes a mixing zone of about 200 by 253 feet around the main outfall, where wastewater mixes into the bay. It covers temperature, color, turbidity, residues, dissolved oxygen, sediment and total ammonia. The draft also allows a 2-acre area of seafloor where processing residues can settle. A separate mixing zone reaching 100 feet out from the dock outfall covers temperature, total ammonia, arsenic and zinc.

In September, the Unalaska City Council approved a new 10-year lease for the plant's waste outfall line at $2,250 a year.