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Shellfish companies fight to farm geoduck in Thurston County
By ARLASHEPHARD
Continuing more than seven
months of legal battles, Taylor
Shellfish and Blind Dog Enter-
prises filed an appeal in Thurston
County earlier this month to be
able to construct geoduck farms in
Henderson Inlet, fighting the no-
tion that the farms' tubes and net-
ting constitute shoreline "develop-
ment."
On February 3, the Shelton-
based shellfish companies ap-
pealed a ruling made by the Thur-
ston County Hearing Examiner at
the end of January that geoduck
farming constitutes as "develop-
ment" under the state Shoreline
Management Act (SMA), thus
requiring the companies to file a
substantial development permit.
The companies, along with Ar-
cadia Point Seafood, have been
fighting to farm geoduck in Thur-
ston County since at least July of
last year, when all three compa-
nies filed an appeal against the
Thurston County Resource Stew-
ardship Department's adminis-
trative decision that the proposed
geoduck operations constitute as
"development" under SMA be-
cause the tubes and netting quali-
fy as "construction of a structure."
According to court documents,
the hearing examiner noted that
interpretation of the SMA should
lean toward a broader reading of
the definitions of "structure" and
"development."
"The definition of development
is in large part the litmus show-
ing when a permit is required for
a proposed use," wrote Thomas
Bjorgen, Thurston County hear-
ing examiner in a 20-page order
on summary judgment. "Whether
or not it is absurd to deem the tarp
to make a structure, it is not irra-
tional or absurd for the legislature
to decide that having parts joined
together in some definite matter
makes a piece of work a 'structure'
"This decision stifles this
economic opportunity and the
jobs it wiii provide by creating
an overly burdensome
regulatory process."
in applying this prong of the deft-
nition of development."
Taylor Shellfish spokesperson
Bill Dewey said the company has
no choice but to challenge the de-
cision.
"We're already required to ge t
Army Corps of Engineer permits
for our farms which include a
rigorous environmental review,"
Dewey wrote in a statement. "In
addition, new rules being final-
ized by the Department of Ecol-
ogy will likely be requiring Con-
ditional Use Permits for geoduck
farms, which is another level of
environmental review."
Dewey estimates that geoduck
farming has provided around $4
million in annual wages over the
last 10 to 12 years in south Puget
Sound.
"This decision stifles this eco-
nomic opportunity and the jobs it
will provide by creating an over-
ly burdensome regulatory pro-
cess," he wrote. "We simply can-
not stand by and have Thurston
County pile on an additional and
duplicative Substantial Develop-
ment Permit requirement."
Dewey noted that the hearing
examiner's decision contradicted
a 2007 Attorney General Opinion
(AGO) that stated that geoduck
operations fall under SMA "devel-
opment" if they cause substantial
interference with normal public
use of the surface waters.
The opinion stated that since
the PVC tubes used to protect geo-
duck are not edifices or buildings,
they do no constitute "structures."
According to the Thurston
County Hearing Examiners' sum-
mary judgment, however, the
AGO analysis ignored the ele-
ment of the definition including
"any piece of work artificially
built."
The Thurston County Board of
Commissioners will hear the ap-
peal at 5:30 p.m. on March 22.
' State Route = ltShelton WA
ust minutes
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High Low Precip
Fahrenheit (In.)
February 9 46 26 .00
Februaryl0 48 24 .00
Februaryll 50 30 .00
February 12 48 35 .60
February 13 51 41 .39
February 14 48 39 .77
February 15 44 35 .35
Measurements are recorded
for the National Weather Ser-
vice at Sanderson Field.
The weather service pre-
dicts rain showers on Thursday
morning, then rain and snow
showers later in the day. The
night temperature should be
around 43. Less than a half an
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predicts the snow level will fall
below 500 feet. Little snow ac-
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On Friday, the high temper-
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of light snowfall through Friday
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On Saturday there is a 30
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and a high temperature near
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The chance of snow showers
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