A permit for Nordic Aquafarms was unanimously approved by the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, with some amendments, in a meeting Thursday in Eureka. This permit, surrounding wastewater discharge of the project, is one of the requirements the project needs to meet to build a fish farm project on the abandoned pump mill site in Samoa.There was some back and forth between staff and the board — board members were hesitant to approve the permit, noting a lack of data and concerns brought up during public comment. Chair Hector Bedolla began the discussion with a call to eschew politics and make decisions based on the available science.Multiple public commenters brought up the lack of a full antidegradation analysis that regulates water quality. Carla Avila-Martinez, from advocacy group Surfrider Humboldt, asked for the analysis to keep water quality high. Jennifer Kalt, executive director of Humboldt Waterkeeper, which was formerly known as Humboldt Baykeeper, noted the brown water from the days of the pulp mill showed her that the water discharged in the ocean outcrop can be washed back in the bay.“Our primary concern is related to the nutrient discharge into the ocean and potential impacts on beneficial uses,” said Kalt. She said that while Humboldt Waterkeeper appreciates the most recent changes, intake and effluent limitations aren’t quite to their liking. Regina Chichizola, executive director of Save California’s Salmon, who said the nutrient impacts need to be clearer also noted a similar point. Other concerns noted include socioeconomic factors, like the fishing of salmon, clams, and crabs, plus how the practices of those Indigenous to the area would be affected. Surfrider voiced concerns about the health of people swimming and surfing in the bay, which also sees treated effluent from the Elk River wastewater treatment plant.A number of changes were made to the permit after input by the board and the public. The work plan is subject to a 30-day public comment period. A mitigation plan is also to be submitted to the board.Read More
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency penalized American Seafoods Company LLC of Seattle and the owners of its fish-processing vessels nearly $1 million for significant violations of the Clean Water Act committed while harvesting and processing fish in the Pacific Ocean off the Oregon and Washington coast.EPA cited the companies for hundreds of violations including discharging waste in the protected Heceta/Stonewall Banks complex along the Oregon coast, failure to monitor its discharges and missing or inaccurate information in required annual reports.Discharge of seafood processing waste in prohibited areas and within the 100-meter depth contour of Washington and Oregon exacerbates already existing low-oxygen conditions which negatively impact most fishes, crabs and other marine life.EPA evaluated the compliance of the Oregon and Washington seafood processing industry and found that American Seafoods Company and the owners of its vessels stood apart from the other Oregon and Washington offshore fish processors in the number and severity of violations. The vessels are the American Dynasty, American Triumph, Northern Eagle, Northern Jaeger and Ocean Rover.In an Administrative Order on Consent effective Aug. 17, EPA requires the companies to conduct corporate-wide, systemic improvements to ensure compliance with its permits. In separate Consent Agreements, EPA also requires the companies pay $999,000 in penalties.“In amassing hundreds of violations from illegal discharges to sloppy and even non-existent record-keeping American Seafoods Company demonstrated a clear disregard for the fragile and valuable resources that sustain its business,” said Ed Kowalski, Director of EPA’s Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Division in Seattle. “When issuing a permit, EPA confers to the permit holder the responsibility to protect our nation’s resources. We expect the company-wide, systematic overhaul of its operations will re-focus American Seafoods Company on the true value of its permit, the importance of tracking compliance with the permit, and the resources that permit entrusts it with protecting.”Read More
In a press release issued Wednesday evening, a coalition of local environmental groups accused city and county planners of employing a harmful and dishonest “accounting trick” in the process of developing a regional Climate Action Plan.The groups say Humboldt County, as lead agency in the plan’s development, has resorted to “adopting fuzzy math” to achieve state targets for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.Specifically, the environmental organizations argue that the county plans to sidestep meaningful action on reducing GHG emissions by taking credit for the emission reductions already achieved over the past three decades through the closure of industrial polluters, including the local sawmills and pulp mills.“Through clever accounting, Humboldt County is proposing a Climate Action Plan that fails to actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Matt Simmons, staff attorney at the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC), says in Wednesday’s press release.“In other words,” adds Humboldt Waterkeeper in a release of its own, “the county wants to take credit in the Climate Action Plan for plant closures over the last three decades that the county government had nothing to do with.”Read More
Big changes are coming to the old Brainard Mill Site. This week, Sequoia Forest Products LLC — which is in the process of buying the site from the California Redwood Company — got the green light from the California Coastal Commission to revamp the 78-acre property, located along the eastern shoreline of Humboldt Bay across Highway 101 from Mid-City Motor World, to make way for industrial development and manufacturing.The project proposal includes demolition and removal of 16 industrial buildings, as well as several improvements to the existing lumber mill “for continued use in lumber production as an ultra-high fiber recovery sawmill producing redwood fence boards,” according to the staff report. “Internal modifications are planned within Building FF to support use of the site, including remodeling of a restroom, and the installation of a lunch/break room, a programmable logic control (PLC) room, and small office spaces. These improvements require no additional foundation work or expansion of the building envelope.”Read More
Pressure is mounting on the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District to reconsider its relationship with Crowley Maritime, its partner in the rush to develop a marine terminal to serve the proposed offshore wind farm, or at least to hold off on consummating the partnership.The first official salvo came Aug. 20 in the form of an op-ed Yurok Tribal Chair Joseph James published in a local paper calling on the district to “reconsider” its exclusive right to negotiate agreement with the international maritime industry giant due to a “rotten company culture” evidenced by two federal lawsuits. The latest, meanwhile, hit Aug. 31, with news that Crowley Wind Services Vice President Jeff Andreini had left the company amid sexual harassment allegations with ties to Humboldt County, as first reported by the Lost Coast Outpost.Read More
