HomeMy WebLinkAbout010824 email Public Hearing on Geoduck Regulation - Public CommentALERT: BE CAUTIOUS This email originated outside the organization. Do not open attachments or click on links if you are not expecting them.
Hello,
Thank you for having a Public Comment hearing today. I attended the meeting, but did not speak. I would like to add my comments below to be added to the record. I live in Port Ludlow.
One fact that jumped out repeatedly at this morning’s meeting was that Jefferson County CUP regulations are laxer than other counties along the Hood Canal and other locations that grow
Geoduck. Several speakers mentioned that the other counties share the same CUP guidelines, but Jefferson County is not as strict.
That set off alarm bells for me. If there are bad actors in the Geoduck industry, they will flock to Jefferson County where they know they will be able to flaunt best practices used
in the rest of the state. Even growers that are currently good stewards of the environment will be under pressure in a race to the bottom. Investors looking for lax regulations will
offer to buy Jefferson County aquaculture acreage so they can out-compete non-Jefferson growers who are held to higher standards. Jefferson County will suffer.
This is a world-wide reality. Please don’t pretend it isn’t true.
I think the producers of geoduck should be required to find new ways to cultivate that don’t rely on plastics. Industries throughout the country are reckoning with this. I think a better
use of Jefferson County funds and energy is to require uniform CUPs but offer these producers incentives and tax breaks to invent new production methods. Instead of letting producers
continue environmentally damaging methods with weak regulation, this would be better for us all.
Thank you for adding my comments to the public record.
Karen Lopilato