WARRENTON, Ore. – Two Oregon nonprofits have announced plans to sue Pacific Bio Products, alleging more than three years of repeated pollution violations at its Warrenton location on the mouth of the Columbia River.
The facility, owned by Pacific Seafood, produces fishmeal, shellfish and fish oils used in pet food, livestock feed and aquaculture.
George Kimbrell, co-executive director and legal director at the Center for Food Safety, is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
He pointed to the company’s data indicating chlorine discharges exceeding the daily limit by more than 73,000 times as recently as August.
“Because the fish are kept in a very confined, unnatural way, they require lots of pesticides, fungicides and other toxins to keep the fish free of disease. And then, of course, that goes right through the net pens, or cages, and right out into the environment surrounding the facility,” said Kimbrell.
This lawsuit will be the second legal action this year against Pacific Seafood. In July, the Center for Food Safety and others filed a lawsuit over Clean Water Act violations at its rainbow trout facilities, marketed as “steelhead,” on the eastern Columbia River in Nespelem, Washington.
The July suit is still in its early stages, and the latest suit is expected to be filed in December.
Kimbrell hopes the lawsuits will not only push Pacific Seafood to comply with the Clean Water Act but also highlight the harmful effects farmed fish have on wild fish populations and the communities that depend on them.
“They market these fish as a, quote unquote, ‘green or sustainable’ seafood option in grocery stores, and they’re not. It’s misleading to consumers,” said Kimbrell.
Kimbrell also emphasized one of the biggest risks of farming fish is that some fish inevitably escape the confines and can weaken wild populations by spreading diseases, competing for resources and introducing harmful genetic changes through interbreeding.
