Wastewater Characterization of Fish Processing Plant Effluents

1.3 Scope
The scope of the study was to evaluate the waste management practices at eight selected fish
processing operations and to characterize the effluent from four of these plants. The study
period was limited to the salmon processing period, but was to include all processing that took
place during that period (i.e. including any processing of other fish occurring during the study
period).
The wastewater characterization phase of the project included the determination of a number of
physical and chemical wastewater quality parameters, as well as the carrying out of four
different toxicity tests. Due to budget constraints toxicity tests were conducted only with the
effluents from three plants, whereas the determination of physical and chemical wastewater
quality parameters involved effluent from four plants.
1.4 Report Structure
The report is structured into the following eight sections:
@ Section 1: presents background information and states the report objectives;
@ Section 2: provides a description of typical fish processing operations at visited
facilities;
@ Section 3: provides a review of typical waste management practices and flow measurement
techniques at visited facilities;
@ Section 4: provides a description of each of visited fish processing facilities and
outlines the differences of their practices as compared to typical processing
operations described in section 2;
@ Section 5: provides a description of sampling methodology;
@ Section 6: presents discussion of physical/chemical and biological testing results;
FREMP 03/21/1994
Fish Processing Plant Effluent 5