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I am Ralph Rush, and I live on Marrowstone Island at 5003
Flagler Road, Nordland Washington.
My home is located on Scow Bay at the south end of Kilisut Harbor,
where I have operated the Scow Bay Oyster Farm for more than 28
years. We raise oysters, clams, and mussels at the farm, which has
never experienced a closure due to contaminants entering the bay
from either Marrowstone Island or Indian Island. Because I am
operating a commercial shellfish farm, the state Department of
Health conducts frequent water testing to ensure the water quality
meets the standards for shellfish harvested for sale to the public.
After nearly three decades of operating my shellfish farm, I have a
few observations to offer regarding a concern about placing the
pipeline under the highway ditches where the Flagler Road comes
close to the shoreline.
* All of the road ditches on the west side of Marrowstone Island
eventually flow to Kilisut Harbor.
* These ditches are regularly and thoroughly cleaned by County and
State road crews.
* During rainy periods these ditches carry considerable amounts of
stormwater runoff.
* Runoff from the ditches into Kilisut Harbor has not adversely
impacted the harbor's water quality, as evidenced by many years
of DOH's water testing results.
* Because they are filter feeders, shellfish are excellent water
quality indicators, and do not tolerate poor water quality. If
contamination from disturbing the soils in the ditches were a
concern, we would have experienced harvesting closures related
to the highway crews' ditch maintenance operations. . . a
precautionary response that DOH has never found necessary, even
when we had severe rainstorms immediately following a ditch
cleaning.
Neither I nor the state Department of Health anticipate any adverse
impacts on the island's commercial shellfishing operations or water
quality problems as a result of the planned excavation and burying
of pipe beneath the ditches along the roadway in the shoreline
areas.
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