Our mission is to protect the habitat of Puget Sound tidelands from the underregulated expansion of new and intensive shellfish aquaculture methods. These methods were never anticipated when the Shoreline Management Act was passed. They are transforming the natural tideland ecosystems in Puget Sound and are resulting in a fractured shoreline habitat. In South Puget Sound much of this has been done with few if any meaningful shoreline permits and with limited public input. It is exactly what the Shoreline Management Act was intended to prevent.

Get involved and contact your elected officials to let them you do not support aquaculture's industrial transformation of Puget Sound's tidelands.

Governor Inslee:

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Taylor Shellfish Mussel Raft Permit Decision: Cumulative Impacts Not Adequately Considered

Thurston County's Hearing Examiner has issued a decision on Taylor Shellfish's proposed 58 raft mussel farm: cumulative impacts were not adequately considered. Taylor Shellfish has been given a choice on how to deal with this deficiency.


"First, it [Taylor Shellfish] may inform the Hearing Examiner that it wishes to challenge the determination that the present analysis of cumulative impacts is deficient and the requirement to perform an additional cumulative analysis. In that case, I will issue a supplemental decision denying the application on that basis, and the Applicant may appeal. Alternatively, the Applicant may inform the Examiner that it wishes to carry out the analysis of cumulative effects required by this decision. In that case, the Examiner and the parties will confer about the timing and nature of that analysis."

As noted in this blog and by others for many years, one shellfish farm may appear to be benign. When considered as a whole, however, Puget Sound's long term health is at risk from the cumulative impacts from the growth of industrial shellfish farming. Cumulative impacts do matter and they are significant. Thanks to APHETI this reality is now being forced to be considered by agencies.
(Note: To be added to APHETI's email list, you may email them at: APHETI@gmail.com.)
Current examples of cumulative effects:

New Geoduck Nursery in Spencer Cove
NE Harstene Island, ~300' in Length
(click to enlarge)
(needed for "increased geoduck seed demand")

Corporate Shellfish Barge
3 ea. 200 hp Outboard Motors
(click to enlarge)
(growing production is resulting in growing demand
for increased transportation)

Area of Low Dissolved Oxygen
In Totten Inlet Near
Taylor Shellfish's Processing Plant
Which Discharges ~150,000 Gallons of
Waste Water Each Day
(increased production at Taylor plant will result
in more waste water being discharged)

Farms Continue to Loose PVC Tubes in 2012
After Email to County in 2010
(click to enlarge)
(The old "Brass Foundry" on Highway 101 near Shelton 
is now being used as a storage area for PVC pipes.)

Cumulative impacts from corporate shellfish farming's developments in Puget Sound's tidelands and waters are real and they are impacting Puget Sound. The Shoreline Management Act was created to prevent the piecemeal development of Puget Sound's shoreline. Its intent is beyond question. This decision will help ensure that intent is met and corporate profits will not become the overarching philosophy.

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