WEBINAR RECORDING February 19, 2021
Seafood industry leaders engaged the OSU seafood laboratory to assist them in their sustainability efforts, resulting in the development of the Seafood Wastewater Workshop.
In this webinar we will discuss the development of the Seafood Wastewater Workshop and its goals and the continuing challenges faced by the industry.
Oregon seafood processors convert harvested seafood into products, by-products and wastewater.
Many plants are located in small, rural coastal communities that do not have the necessary municipal infrastructure (i.e. waste water treatment facilities) needed to adequately handle the processing waters generated from most seafood processing plants.
The discharge from one rurally located seafood processor can exceed the available capacity of the closest municipal treatment facility, because they are designed to operate with a consistent flow and organic load.
Wide changes in input often negatively impact the municipal facility’s ability to properly treat wastewater and meet their discharge permit requirements.
Many seafood processing plants have large daily swings in flow and organic loading due to the variations in species processed. The reduction in flow and pollutant load needed to discharge to the municipal treatment plant is cost prohibitive.
As a result of this significant challenge, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has issued permits to allow the processors to pretreat and discharge their effluent to the waters of Oregon.
These permits are periodically reviewed and re-authorized based on technology based limits promulgated by EPA and water quality based limits developed by the State. To meet the limits in the latest round of permitting, seafood processors in Oregon and northwest locations will need to decrease the amount of unrecovered seafood resource in the wastewater.
The company provides environmental and process engineering services to the seafood, aquaculture and rendering industries from California to Alaska.
Alan’s primary focus has been finding innovative ways to convert waste into by-products, increase product recovery, and comply with environmental regulations. Numerous and diverse work projects have spanned a wide range of industry challenges, from plant audits to end of pipe wastewater treatment system design and everything in between.
Alan has presented numerous papers internationally and is a contributing author for several books.
Christina A. Mireles DeWitt currently serves as the Interim Director of the Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station with locations in Newport and Astoria, Oregon. She is also a professor in the department of Food Science & Technology.
Dr. DeWitt’s current research is focused on improving seafood quality, safety and utilization. In addition, she teaches a graduate level Seafood Technology course.
She has also served as an affiliate instructor for the FDA/University of Maryland Joint Institute of Food Safety and Nutrition (JIFSAN) since 2014. In this capacity, she has been involved with delivery of international workshops focused on Good Fishing Vessel Practices, Good Aquaculture Practices, and Seafood HACCP.
