Pacific Seafood - Kristina Schmidt

Potential Impacts & Annual Reductions

Kristina recommended three activities:

• Use water brooms and alternative cleaning methods on the processing floor, which would help reduce the company’s overall water use by 508,860 gallons and save the company $2,728 annually.
• Reduce water pollution by repurposing wastewater that will be sold as fertilizer saving 226,218 lbs a year.
• Replace the current shrimp peeling machine with an updated version to prevent water usage, which would save 8,116,248 gallons of water and $1,232,328 annually.

Background

High use of city water and pollution reduction are the primary focus when considering water conservation at Pacific Seafood Group Shrimp in Newport. City water is used in nearly every step of shrimp processing, from brining to cooking to peeling. In addition, shrimp effluent water streams have been shown to have the highest concentration of pollutants compared to other Pacific Seafood Group facilities.

Solutions

Processing shrimp is extremely water-intensive and has a great impact on the City of Newport’s water supply. The following are recommendations that Kristina made for saving freshwater during shrimp processing.

• Use water brooms for cleaning the floors to reduce water use to almost a fifth of what it is now.
• Use cleaning methods that do not require water, such as floor squeegees.
• Process the runoff wastewater from shrimp cleaning to sell as fertilizer as it is rich in nitrogen, potassium, sodium, and calcium; all are common ingredients in organic fertilizers.
• Purchase peeling machinery to help save water and increase efficiency.