9420.pdf

not kept by the City as to the
reviewing its policy with respect
5.2 Wastewater Minimization
5.2.1 General
amount of offal being Iandfilled.
to accepting this type of waste.
The City is currently
Seafood waste management options and practices are changing. End-of-pipe treatment
systems enforced by regulatory agencies are no longer viewed as the only options for
environmental protection. High costs of end-of-pipe treatment systems and increasing
costs of waste disposal’ have shifted the attention to conservation, recycling and
byproduct recovery practices.
Instead of the expensive end-of-pipe treatment, the fish processing industry has taken the
initiative and is moving towards water conservation and in-house modifications to improve
the quality of the process effluent. For example, representatives from several fish
processing companies participated in a wastewater technology mission to learn about
pollution control measures implemented at several North European fish processing
facilities. The mission was co-sponsored by the Fisheries Council of B.C. (FCBC), who
also co-sponsored a conference in Vancouver in February 1994 on dealing with waste
handling in the fish processing industry. To the knowledge of the authors of this study,
two major fish processors in the Lower Mainland are already implementing water
conservation techniques and equipment modification/modernization similar to the ones
described later in this section. However, there is still considerable room for further
improvements.
With regard to wastewater minimization, the following different aspects can be identified:
. reduction of the wastewater volume, and
● reduction of the contaminant loads.
Although water conservation measures would at first glance seem not to affect the
contaminant loading, observations in fish processing plants which have implemented
extensive water saving measures, indicate that substantial reductions in the contaminant
loadings are possible. Certain water conservation measures result in a reduction of the
contaminant loadings in the process effluent due to segregation of offal and blood from
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