HomeMy WebLinkAbout020524 Public Comment Gordon King (0002) 130C Z( fz `(
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According to the "Programmatic Biological Assessment Shellfish Activities in Washington State Inland
Marine Waters U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Regulatory Program 2015" Page 43, there are 125,736
acres of tidelands in Puget Sound and Hood Canal and only 9,214 acres are being farmed for shellfish
aquaculture..This represent 7.33%of tidelands. Also a very small percentage of the 9,214 acres used for
shellfish aquaculture is presently used for geoduck culture. Presently my estimation is that it is less than
600 acres or 0.48%of tidelands.
Shellfish farmers have been and continue to be stewards of our environment. In the past fighting to
restrict the dumping of toxic mill effluent into our waters, participating in organizations such as the MRC
and Clean Water District. Of note the CWD main task is limiting the damage to our aquatic environment
caused by upland development.
The Commissioners have been presented with a storyline, concerning the permitting of geoduck
aquaculture, that somehow, at the eleventh hour of consideration, of the SMP update, the Planning
Commission grossly liberalized the geoduck permitting language.
The table I handed you tracks how the update dealt with geoduck farms and CUP's, at various stages of
this process.You will see that by July 2021, at the direction of WDOE to decrease Jefferson County's
excessive use of CUP's, the DCD had suggested there be Discretionary CUP's for new farms and no CUP's
for expansion or conversion.
To the shellfish industry's shock by October 2021 this had converted into full CUP's for every geoduck
iteration. When I was finally able to listen to recordings and minutes from the Planning Commission
meetings,that were posted months after the actual meetings, I found that the PC had been presented
with inaccurate information about geoduck farming, from property owners living on expensive
waterfront properties and decided to adopt Kitsap's very negative aquaculture SMP language.
The October 2023 version coming out of the Planning Commission is significantly more restrictive than
the original 2021 draft suggested by the Jefferson County Planning Department.
Demanding more full CUP's adds considerable expense to the regulatory process, this will ensure that it
is out of reach for smaller growers trying to get a toe hold in the marine farming industry that produces
aquatic food and economic development in Jefferson County.
The irony that the call for more expensive excessive regulation is being promulgated by those that have
chosen to live in a shoreline neighborhood grossly changed by their roads, houses and lawns doesn't
escape me.
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