PORT ANGELES — A Norway-based company is seeking to renew a state permit to continue operating floating salmon pens in Port Angeles Harbor, a process that has come under scrutiny from environmental groups in recent years.
Pan Fish ASA, which owns and operates Atlantic salmon net pens in Port Angeles, Anacortes and off Bainbridge Island, has been embroiled in a lawsuit brought filed by the Washington Environmental Council and other groups contending the pens pollute public waters and threaten other salmon species.
Pan Fish and other state fish farms currently operate under a 1996 National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit issued through the state Department of Ecology.
The permit authorizes fish pens to discharge waste — including fish effluent and feed — without affecting areas more than 100 feet from the farms, based on regular sediment monitoring and reporting.
The rest of this story appears in today’s Sunday Peninsula Daily News. Click on “Subscribe” to get the PDN delivered to your home or office.