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Jeanie Orr
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From: MARILYN HOBAN [marilynhoban@embarqmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 29, 20096:26 PM
To: #Long-Range Planning
Subject: Jefferson County Shoreline Master Plan preliminary draft
Dear Members of the Jefferson County Planning Commission,
The preliminary draft of the Jefferson County Shoreline Master Plan, which currently permits mining
activities, including conveyor belts, piers and barges on the conservancy shoreline of Hood Canal,
should be amended to prohibit such activities, conveyor belts, piers and barges. This opinion is not held
solely by myself, but also by many citizens in the Jefferson-Clallam-Kitsap County region and beyond,
as well as numerous local and national environmental groups, representatives in our State and federal
government, and the wisdom expressed by the Shoreline Hearings Board in the 1970s:
"Intensive land uses or developments within the shoreline of Hood Canal, a shoreline of state-wide
significance, should be discouraged or prohibited. It is difficult to perceive a use more intensive and
incompatible with the present shoreline and aesthetics of Hood Canal than the construction proposed by
the (mining) Company. The pier, conveyor and barge facility will intrude upon the magnificent
grandeur that is now existent, converting the natural characteristics and beauty of the existing shoreline
into one marred by this proposed industrial enterprise."
We must not turn nature's gift to gold. For untold centuries Hood Canal has provided the people who
have inhabited this area with a landscape of grandeur on the scale of a world treasure. The waters and
view of the Olympic mountains from sunrise to sunset, and the view of the stars of the Milky Way at
night inspire and nourish the spirit and soul of this region. It is our responsibility to preserve this icon of
natural beauty in perpetuity for the generations to follow us. There will be no way to "restore" these
lands once they are sullied and the waters dead. The geology and topography of this land has been
created by nature and cannot be re-created, substituted, or re-done. If the millennia of its existence is
marred, scarred, deadened, there is no possibility that it can be replaced.
Too often the very people who are elected or appointed to make decisions for the common good forget
that wisdom is required to govern well. The short term financial benefit of a few people is far
outweighed by the responsibility to preserve the unique and awe-inspiring natural landscape of our
native country. The Hood Canal shoreline is recognized as a "Shoreline of State-Wide Significance",
widening the responsibility for its preservation. In this era of reckoning, where the greed of a few have
caused tremendous harm to so many people, the citizens of this area and this state are even more aware
of the harm that is perpetrated by governance in favor of a few over the common good. We look to you
to protect our common good and interests, and to confirm and uphold the preservation of Hood Canal by
making it very clear that mining, conveyor belts, and piers and barges in support of such activity are
absolutely not compatible with the Shoreline Master Plan.
Furthermore, there has been much news coverage of the inconvenience that will be created while the
Hood Canal bridge is out of commission for a relatively short period of time in order to complete
scheduled work. Barges, whether large or small, accessing gravel at a pier located within Hood Canal
creates not the possibility but statistically the eventual reality of damage to the bridge, and the cutting
off of access to and from the Olympic Peninsula. The cost of such a disaster to the Clallam-Jefferson-
2/2/2009
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Kitsap area in terms of commerce alone is staggering. We all know who would pay the price for the
repair also - we the tax payers. Can we afford to even entertain such a disaster? The Hood Canal bridge
area experiences extremely dense fog regularly throughout the year. Fog horns can be heard for hours
and days on end. This is one area of high danger of collision between a barge and a bridge, with
resulting consequences creating immense problems and a state-wide disaster area. On a fiscal level
alone, we cannot afford mining within Hood Canal which by its very nature puts the Hood Canal bridge
at risk.
Please make the right decision for our generation and the many generations to follow, a decision we can
be proud of, that preserves this irreplaceable gift of nature rather than creating a bit of wealth for a very
few.
Respectfully submitted,
Marilyn Hoban
25853 Canyon Road NW
Poulsbo, Washington 98370
2/2/2009