Two environmental groups are suing to halt what they say is pollution released from three commercial net pen aquaculture facilities that produce steelhead located on the Columbia River in Eastern Washington. The groups say Pacific SeaFood Aquaculture LLC has been violating its Clean Water Act permits since 2020 and has been harming wild fish and the river’s ecosystem, home to anadromous fish species listed under the federal Endangered Species Act.
The complaint, filed by the Wild Fish Conservancy and the Center for Food Safety, alleges the company has repeatedly violated the terms of its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit in its process of raising the steelhead in Rufus Woods Lake, the reservoir backed up behind Chief Joseph Dam. The plaintiff nonprofits are represented by Kampmeier & Knutsen PLLC and CFS counsel.
The groups say that Pacific Seafoods markets the steelhead as “sustainably raised,” but that government records show the company has been “in continuous violation” of their NPDES permit conditions since at least April 2020 when the permits were reissued by the Washington Department of Ecology.
“Despite ‘sustainable’ marketing claims and third-party certifications, government records tell a different story— one of chronic noncompliance and ecological harm,” said Emma Helverson, Executive Director of Wild Fish Conservancy. “In the face of the public’s sustained, long-term efforts to protect and restore the Columbia River and its ecosystems, Pacific Seafood has repeatedly violated the Clean Water Act, undermining public trust, degrading water quality, and threatening the survival of wild salmon and steelhead. Local communities and economies should not be left to shoulder the costs of cleanup and ecological damage while a billion-dollar corporation cuts corners on basic environmental protections.”
Commercial aquaculture farms house fish in net pens, or floating facilities, that contain young and mature steelhead in enclosures, such as netting, in open water. The fish are hatched at freshwater hatcheries and the smolts are transferred to the net pens where they are cultivated to a marketable size.
In their court filing, the groups say that net pen aquaculture poses significant environmental and ecological risks, including “impacts associated with water pollution from feces, uneaten food, and pharmaceuticals or other chemicals used to treat the fish; disease and parasite amplification and transmission to wild aquatic species; and fish escapes that can disrupt the ecosystem.”
“These confined industrial fish farming operations have been unlawfully and egregiously polluting the Columbia River for years,” said George Kimbrell, CFS Legal Director. “Fish feed, fish waste, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and other contaminants released by the facilities threaten water quality and native fish populations. We’re taking this action to ensure compliance with environmental laws designed to protect our waterways and the species that depend on them.”
In a news release, the groups listed the “adverse environmental and intertwined socioeconomic impacts” that results from net pen aquaculture. The long list of impacts include pollution from drugs, chemicals, pesticides, fungicides, pharmaceuticals, and other inputs; nutrient pollution from uneaten fish food and fish waste; the spread and amplification of parasites, viruses, and disease from farmed fish to wild fish; overfishing of forage fisheries in order to make fish meal and oil to grow aquacultured fish; adverse ecological effects on surrounding marine wildlife from the facilities; harm to traditional and indigenous fishing cultures and communities; and harm to recreational and commercial fisheries.
They add that chronic fish spills, caused by equipment failure, human error, or weather, are among the worst causes of harm. Escaped fish harm wild fish by competing for food and habitat, spreading viruses and disease, and inbreeding, reducing genetic diversity and resilience, says the complaint.
The groups noted that a net pen aquaculture facility in Puget Sound collapsed in August 2017. At the time, Cooke Aquaculture released an estimated 250,000 non-native and “viral infected Atlantic salmon into Puget Sound.” In early January this year, the state of Washington banned aquaculture facilities in the Sound. The groups added that some 25 million aquacultured fish had escaped net pens worldwide from 1996 through 2012.
Pacific Seafoods has violated its NPDEs permits by exceeding their effluent limitations, failing to properly monitor and report discharges, and failing to develop and implement plans for best management practices to reduce pollution in the manner required, the groups wrote in their complaint. They are seeking the court to:
- Issue a declaratory judgment that Pacific has violated and continues to be in violation of the Permits;
- Issue an injunction enjoining Pacific from operating the commercial steelhead net pen Facilities in a manner that results in further violations of the Permits or the CWA;
- Issue an injunction requiring Pacific to take specific actions to evaluate and remediate the environmental harm caused by its violations;
- Grant such other preliminary and/or permanent injunctive relief as Plaintiffs may from time to time request during the pendency of this case;
- Order Pacific to pay civil penalties up to the maximum authorized by the CWA for each violation committed by Pacific
- Award Plaintiffs their litigation expenses, including reasonable attorney fees and expert witness fees;
- Grant Plaintiffs such additional relief as the Court deems just and proper.
The complaint and 60-day Notice are here: https://wildfishconservancy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/001.0.complaint.pdf
For background, see:
— CBB, January 19, 2025, WASHINGTON STATE FORMALLY BANS NET PEN AQUACULTURE SEVEN YEARS AFTER NET PEN COLLAPSE RELEASED ATLANTIC SALMON INTO PUGET SOUND, HTTPS://COLUMBIABASINBULLETIN.ORG/WASHINGTON-STATE-FORMALLY-BANS-NET-PEN-AQUACULTURE-SEVEN-YEARS-AFTER-NET-PEN-COLLAPSE-RELEASED-ATLANTIC-SALMON-INTO-PUGET-SOUND/
— CBB, November 16, 2022, WASHINGTON DNR ENDS LEASES FOR REMAINING TWO NET PEN AQUACULTURE OPERATIONS (STERILE STEELHEAD) ON STATE-OWNED AQUATIC LANDS, HTTPS://COLUMBIABASINBULLETIN.ORG/WASHINGTON-DNR-ENDS-LEASES-FOR-REMAINING-TWO-NET-PEN-AQUACULTURE-OPERATIONS-STERILE-STEELHEAD-ON-STATE-OWNED-AQUATIC-LANDS/
–CBB, Jan. 27, 2022, WASHINGTON STATE SUPREME COURT ALLOWS COOKE AQUACULTURE TO FARM STERILE STEELHEAD IN STATE’S WATERS https://columbiabasinbulletin.org/washington-state-supreme-court-allows-cooke-aquaculture-to-farm-sterile-steelhead-in-states-waters/