Bainbridge Island Groups Appeal SMP Update Allowing Aquaculture on All Beaches

The Bainbridge Island Review has written an article about a petition for review of Bainbridge Island's Shoreline Master Program (SMP) having been filed. The  Bainbridge Alliance for Puget Sound, Association of Bainbridge Communities and Coalition to Protect Puget Sound Habitat are the groups who have filed the petition. They are represented by David Bricklin with Bricklin and Newman.

The petition objects to the Island's having been told their SMP must allow aquaculture on 100% of the Island's beaches by the Department of Ecology. Originally Bainbridge Island had sought to limit aquaculture to 40% of the Island's beaches but was told by DOE they could not do so. It was felt by DOE the permitting process itself was where siting limitations should occur.

Donations are being sought to support this appeal which seeks to help protect Puget Sound from extensive encroachment of intensive aquaculture. Checks made to Coalition to Protect Puget Sound Habitat (a 501(c)3 organization) should be mailed to Bainbridge Alliance to Protect Puget Sound, 321 High School Rd NE, Ste. D3, PMB #149, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110. 

Center for Biological Diversity Files Petition with EPA for Regulation of PVC

Where do all those PVC tubes go

after 2 years in Puget Sound?

What leaches off of the  ~40,000/acre

used for geoduck farms?

 

Center for Biological Diversification Files Petition with EPA

The Center for Biological Diversification has filed a petition with the EPA asking for increased regulatory oversight of PVC products such as the 8" pipes used in geoduck farming. CBD provides a wealth of studies and information which document the risks to the marine environment from PVC degradation. [see petition here]

 

"Choking the Oceans with Plastic"

NY Times, August 25, 2013

Case Inlet, Puget Sound

Escaped PVC pipes from geoduck farm.

 

Aquaculture is part of a bigger problem, but it is poised to become a much bigger part of the problem

Escaped PVC, netting and rope from aquaculture in Puget Sound is only part of a larger problem of escaped plastics in the ocean. But it is a growing problem and poised to expand immensely. As Charles Moore notes in his editorial entitled "Chocking the Oceans with Plastic", printed in the New York Times on August 25:

The problem is compounded by the aquaculture industry, which uses enormous amounts of plastic in its floats, nets, lines and tubes.

Help put the brakes on plastic pollution in Puget Sound
You can help stop the risk to Puget Sound and the upland areas where the PVC pipes are disposed of when no longer useable. Contact your County Commissioners and tell them as creators of the Shoreline Master Programs which implement the intended goal of the Shoreline Management Act to protect Puget Sound's tidelands you demand PVC pipes be tightly controlled, from cradle to grave, in not entirely banned.

Click here for Thurston County contact information
Click here for Mason County contact information
Click here for Pierce County contact information