Omega Protein Factory Fined Again for Ammonia Discharge

By Scott Harper, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.

May 18–For the sixth time in eight years, the East Coast’s largest menhaden-processing plant, located on the Chesapeake Bay on the remote Northern Neck peninsula, is in trouble with Virginia regulators.

This time, Omega Protein Inc., which runs the big fish-processing plant in tiny Reedville, has agreed to pay the state a $12,600 fine for allowing too much ammonia to escape into a small creek just off the Bay from its wastewater treatment facility where other environmental problems have occurred.

Omega converts millions of pounds of menhaden, a silver bait fish, into fish oil, meal and health supplements. The company is one of the Northern Neck’s biggest employers and a longtime economic force in rural Virginia.

In a proposed settlement with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, expected to be ratified next month, Omega admitted to high ammonia discharges in part because of a power outage last summer and a lack of spare parts and a backup generator.

The state fined Omega $16,500 last year for excessive cyanide discharges at its wastewater facility on Cockrell’s Creek, as well as $5,500 in 2005 for cyanide and ammonia violations at the plant.

The Texas-based company has signed six agreements to settle Virginia environmental infractions in Reedville since 1999, according to officials and records.

“They certainly could stand to pay more attention to their environmental performance,” said Frank Lupini, a state enforcement officer overseeing the case.

“They seem to want to do the right thing,” Lupini added, “but they don’t have a complete grasp of what the right thing is.”

Toby Gascon, a corporate spokesman in Louisiana, said the problems are minor ones and complained that state regulators are being too tough on the Reedville plant, given recent debate about fishing practices in the Bay.

“Obviously we’re operating under a microscope,” Gascon said. “As best as I can tell, this all stems from a power outage. I mean, come on. How can we control that?”

Lupini said that most industries in the state keep generators on hand in case of power outages, though Omega does not. He also noted that an ammonia stripper, a piece of equipment designed to neutralize ammonia from wastewater, had broken down and that Omega had no spare parts to immediately repair it.

In the proposed settlement, Omega has agreed to install an automatic generator as well as inventory its spare parts. The company also is upgrading its wastewater facility, expected to cost about $8 million, to cope with cyanide discharges.

While other East Coast states have barred the industrial harvest of menhaden from their coastal waters, Virginia remains stalwart. For years, the state imposed few restrictions on menhaden catches, made by two boats, large nets and spotter planes.

Under pressure from environmentalists, though, the state last year approved a first-ever cap on the amount of menhaden that can be hauled from Virginia waters. Humans do not eat menhaden, but almost every game species of fish does. Activists have long complained that excessive harvests have hurt the overall health of the Bay.

During August and September last year, state regulators noticed high levels of ammonia in discharge reports at Reedville. Lupini said they were about twice the legal limit. Given ammonia’s toxicity, and Omega’s past, the readings were classified as “serious,” he said.

— Reach Scott Harper at (757) 446-2340 or scott.harper@pilotonline.com.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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