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:

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Pierce County SMP Update: County Complains to DOE

Shoreline Master Plans: Local Discretion
or 
Department of Ecology Mandate?

September 17 - Before the Community Development Committee
October 2 - Before the County Council

Email: Dave Risvold - dave.risvold@piercecountywa.gov

Pierce County is in the process of reviewing and ratifying its Shoreline Master Plan update. Part of the update process has included responding to the Department of Ecology's required changes. In a letter dated June 27, Pierce County wrote of the "...apparent inability to exercise local discretion in certain areas of shoreline management."

 Specifically, Pierce County writes:
"Pierce County would prefer to prohibit the dumping of dredged material within the State's designated Nisqually Reach Aquatic Reserve due to various factors including the existence of alternative dredged material disposal sites within the County."
Further:
"Pierce County would also prefer to prohibit certain aquaculture activities in proximity to estuaries and within select bays and inlets that are developed with high density residential densities."
"Obligating the County to accept uses in inappropriate areas that will result in unavoidable impacts and user conflicts is unfortunate." 
Not allowed by Ecology:
18. Aquaculture is prohibited in Estuaries within 300 feet of the mouth of freshwater streams (as measured at extreme low tide).
19. Aquaculture is prohibited adjacent to residential neighborhoods in Horsehead Bay, Wollochet Bay, Lay Inlet and adjacent to Raft Island due to water quality and visual impacts.
d. Disposal of dredged material within the Nisqually Reach Aquatic Reserve
17. With the exception of Olympia Oyster propagation which is a conditional use, new commercial shellfish aquaculture operations are prohibited within the Nisqually Reach Aquatic Reserve.

 For complete document showing what was struck by DOE, added by DOE, and why, see this link:
https://www.piercecountywa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/71099/Required-Changes-Document

For DOE's "recommended changes" see this document:
https://www.piercecountywa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/71096/Recommended-Changes-Document


Posted by Protect Our Shoreline at 4:31 PM
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