Aquaculture's Impacts: Center for Food Safety Sues Army Corps Over Lack of Regulatory Oversight

What could go wrong? The more the better.

Good for the profits of a few,

bad for all who care about 

Washington's marine habitat.

The Center for Food Safety filed a lawsuit August 10 against the Corps of Engineers' decision to issue 2017 Nationwide Permit 48 covering aquaculture activities, asking the courts to:

 (1) declare the Corps’ decision to adopt 2017 NWP 48 in Washington State is unlawful under the CWA, NEPA, and arbitrary and capricious, in violation of the APA; (2) set aside or vacate the Corps’ March 17, 2017 decision to adopt 2017 NWP 48 in Washington (effective March 19, 2017); (3) declare that the Corps, prior to adopting any new NWP for commercial shellfish aquaculture, must comply with NEPA, including the preparation of an EIS, and the CWA, including the requirement that any general permit not cause more than minimal adverse individual or cumulative impacts to Washington’s aquatic environment. 

Read US News article here:
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/washington/articles/2017-08-11/lawsuit-targets-federal-oversight-of-shellfish-farming
Read article in The Olympian here:
http://www.theolympian.com/news/business/article166729272.html

Good old boys, slapping the backs

of politicians, paying a dollar here and there,

with a free oyster or two. It goes a long way.

(2016 lobbying visit by shellfish growers in DC)

In the papers filed, the Center pointed out one of the most glaring assumption swallowed by the Corps at the behest of the shellfish industry, defining a "new" operation:

The revised definition of “new” makes all operations “existing” so long as any commercial shellfish aquaculture took place in the area in the last 100 years. This would allow an operation in 2018 to be considered “existing” and thus avoid restrictions on “new” operations if, for example, oyster culture was conducted in 1919, with nothing in between.

Individual discrete parcels are becoming

one large area with multiple harvesting

cycles impacting the marine habitat

on an ongoing basis. 

Cumulative impacts matter.

Kao Torgeson Roosa - Pierce County, Public Hearing September 27, 9AM (Confirm with Ty Booth at ty.booth@co.pierce.wa.us or 253-798-3727)
Cumulative impacts matter and isolated events do not represent impacts adjacent operations create or vastly increasing operations creates. Throughout Puget Sound alone, what had been individual parcels are now becoming one large contiguous operation. These operations operate on multiple cycles creating an ongoing impact to the marine habitat on a scale not studied. One example is in Pierce County where two previously separate parcels operated. Now before the County is a permit request which would result in one large contiguous parcel. In Burley Lagoon, Taylor Shellfish is proposing a 25 acre operation. Thurston County has a 10 acre operation proposed by Chelsea Sea Farms and numerous smaller parcels. As noted in the papers filed, cumulative effects is defined as:

the changes in an aquatic ecosystem that are attributable to the collective effect of a number of individual discharges of dredged or fill material. Although the impact of a particular discharge may constitute a minor change in itself, the cumulative effect of numerous such piecemeal changes can result in a major impairment of the water resources and interfere with the productivity and water quality of existing aquatic ecosystems. 

Get involved and help support Center for Food Safety's efforts.
The papers filed go in to great detail about the current and future adverse impacts which will result directly from the Corps's issuing the 2017 Nationwide Permit 48 covering aquaculture. While lobbying over the past 3 years was effective in minimizing regulatory oversight of the shellfish industry by the Corps, that does not mean it should be accepted. You can help ensure the future of Washington's marine habitat will be protected by helping.
Read the Center's release here: 
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/press-releases/5039/center-for-food-safety-sues-trump-administration-to-protect-washingtons-coastal-waters#
Donate to the Center for Food Safety here:
https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/supportcfs
Read the suit filed here:
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/files/2017-8-10-complaint_final_95352.pdf