WARRENTON — Pacific Seafood was fined $41,200 in May by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality for wastewater violations at its Warrenton plant.

The company, which is headquartered in Clackamas, plans to dispute the penalty.

The Department of Environmental Quality cited the seafood processor for discharging wastewater from an unauthorized discharge point and repeatedly violating effluent limitations. According to the notice from the state, Pacific Seafood exceeded effluent limitations 68 times between December 2018 and March.

In a statement, Lacy Ogan, Pacific Seafood’s director of public affairs, noted that “the vast majority of the alleged permit exceedances occurred during the 90-day grace period that the federal government grants to calibrate and dial-in new treatment technology.”

The Warrenton plant reopened in 2018, five years after the previous plant along the Skipanon River was destroyed by fire. The reopening was accompanied by the installation of a new wastewater treatment system.

“This was the first time this advanced treatment technology was installed in U.S. seafood processing, so it required engineering calibration to operate effectively,” Ogan said. “Since then, Pacific Seafood’s goals of maximizing the resource and diverting residuals from landfills has prevailed as the Warrenton plant has dramatically reduced its permit exceedances to nearly zero.”