Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Tom Kirk (Salton Sea Authority: 760-564-4888
or James M. Carlberg (Kent Sea Tech Corp: 858-452-5765)

September 16, 2002

MECCA--The Salton Sea Authority and Kent SeaTech Corp will be breaking ground here Thursday on an innovative project to remove nutrients from agricultural drain water through the use of a natural process involving high-rate algae ponds and algae-eating fish.     

The Salton Sea has an abundance of nitrogen and phosphorus flowing into it, primarily in irrigation runoff that originates on agricultural fields throughout the region. These nutrients create eutrophic conditions at the Sea.

While eutrophication is a natural process in the life cycle of a lake, it also leads to algal blooms that deplete oxygen in the water. This lack of oxygen is a leading cause of fish die-offs and odors.

The Salton Sea Authority has awarded a $250,000 contract to Kent SeaTech, the state’s largest aquaculture company, to test a process to reduce nutrients flowing to the Sea.

The project’s location is Kent SeaTech’s aquaculture facility on Avenue 70 (Indian Reservation Road), which is just east of Highway 86 in Mecca.

Kent SeaTech has diverted flows from the Whitewater River into shallow ponds at the corporation’s Mecca fish hatchery. Algae grown in the ponds will use nutrients in the river water.

The algae will be harvested both mechanically and by grazing Tilapia. If this demonstration project proves successful, full-scale application could be made to reduce algal blooms, fish die offs and the associated odors at the Sea.

“We are extremely excited about Kent SeaTech’s work on behalf of the Salton Sea,” said Tom Kirk, Executive Director of the Authority. “This company is extensively qualified, with its 30 years of involvement in aquaculture and 20 years of operation as the World’s largest striped bass culture facility, located in the Coachella Valley,” he added.

“The work we are doing for the Salton Sea Authority involves the modification of wastewater treatment technologies developed by engineers at Clemson University and refined by us under funding from the United States Department of Agriculture,” said Kent SeaTech President James M. Carlberg.

“The two major elements of this technology are the ability to rapidly settle algae adapted to high flow rates and the use of innovative algal harvesting systems,” he said.

Kent SeaTech has three decades of experience in aquaculture--the controlled culturing of fish and shellfish. The company directed major aquaculture research at San Diego State University and Scripps Institution of Oceanography from 1970 – 1979.

It also directed research for electric utilities on the beneficial use of effluent in marine fish and shell fish culture, and principals with Kent SeaTech are recognized as world experts in the culture of lobster, shrimp and stripped bass.

Kent SeaTech developed its Coachella Valley commercial warm water fish culture facility in 1983 to grow stripped bass. Since then, the facility has tripled in size and markets its product under the brand name of California Farmed Striped Bass ® to seafood distributors and high-end restaurants and supermarkets.

 

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