HomeMy WebLinkAbout040 Email from Friends of Burley Lagoon
November 8, 2024
VIA EMAIL
TO: Donna Frostholm, Project Planner, Department of Community Development
Jefferson County: dfrostholm@co.jefferson.wa.us
RE: Shoreline substantial development permit and flood development permit application
(SDP2024-00001) to raise oysters using a floating upwelling system (FLUPSY) in Tarboo
Bay, north of Dabob Bay.
Dear Donna Frostholm,
Please enter these comments into the record.
“At any point in time the world we see is somewhere in between being created and
being destroyed. It is seldom static, which is why if there are things we cherish about
the present, it is on us to preserve them.”
- Raymond Zhong, New York Times Climate Forward, June 6, 2023
Friends of Burley Lagoon (FOBL) is writing to urge you to deny the shoreline substantial
development permit and flood development permit application (SDP2024-00001) to raise
oysters using a floating upwelling system (FLUPSY) in Tarboo Bay, north of Dabob Bay. In this
specific case, the Tarboo Bay FLUPSY appears to have been operating without county permits
for eight years. This is a retroactive permit application that must be denied and penalties
enforced for misuse of public waters.
FOBL is concerned about aquaculture’s rapid expansion in Puget Sound without sufficient
oversight and monitoring of the industrialized practices implemented by private enterprise. As
of 2022, within Puget Sound’s 650,000 acres, “commercial shellfish growing areas in Puget
Sound cover roughly 260,000 acres,” which is almost 40%.(1)
The piecemeal, county-by-county permitting of shellfish aquaculture across Puget Sound is
allowing industrialized sites to spread like patchwork. Cumulative impact studies of the system-
wide ecological impacts, along with oversight and independent monitoring of compliance of
aquaculture regulations, are severely lacking.(2) Counties are working independently, not
collaboratively, to the detriment of Puget Sound and the citizens that call it home. How much
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more of Puget Sound, claimed suitable for aquaculture, should be permitted to the industry?
In the past several years we’ve learned much about the cumulative effects of climate change.
We’re at a tipping point. Tarboo Bay doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Changes to it affect the Puget
Sound, the Pacific Ocean, and beyond. We implore you to deny the permit.
Sincerely,
Friends of Burley Lagoon Board of Directors
Janey Aiken
Claudia Casebolt
Bob Christel
Wendy Ferrell
Heather McFarlane
Lorrie Peterson
Lisette West
For more information on FOBL, please see www.friendsofburleylagoon.org
(1) Puget Sound Vital Signs: Measures of Ecosystem Health and Progress Toward Puget Sound Recovery
Goals. Area of Harvestable Shellfish Beds. (2022). Washington State Department of Health.
(2) Bergstein, A. (2018, May 13). Damning emails surface showing state concerns over aquaculture
methods, Olympic Peninsula Environmental News, para 2.
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