June 23, 2011 Shelton Mason County Journal | ![]() |
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By ARLA SHEPHARD
Local watershed planners have decided not to meet
in the next couple months given the shaky future of
watershed planning at the state level.
The Department of Ecology has not yet figured out
how it will fund watershed planning units like WRIA
16 in Hood Canal, said Ecology environmental plan-
ner Tim Gates to WRIA 16 members in Hoodsport last
week.
"They [Ecology] can't promise me anything," Gates
said. "The money that the legislature gave them is cut
in half, and [the state] told Ecology that the priority
should be to focus on the backlog of water rights [ap-
plications]."
The watershed planners authorized one of their
members to write the initial grant for planning if the
funding comes through.
"I'm hoping we get the final answer right away,"
said Gates, who is optimistic that WRIA 16 will be
among the units funded. "I know there's some that are
just going to get lopped off, but I'm pretty sure this is
not one of them."
Ecology is expected to come to a decision in the first
two weeks of July, Gates said.
ADOPT-A-PET'S 18TM -
ANNUAL 4 PAWS
DOG WALK •
June 25~ at the Huff-N-Puff Trail on ,
Shelton Springs Road from 9am - 2pro
All dogs must be on a leash.
You can also have our mascot
walk for your contribution to all the dogs at
the kennels. There are hot dogs & cake plus
water for dogs & their humans. There will be
a gift for each entrant, also vendors & raffles.
Come and enjoy a walk while you support our
no-kill dog rescue.
rmy
perm its geod uck
nur
ry at Spencer C
By ARLA SHEPHARD
The U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers issued a permit
this month to Seattle Shell-
fish for the installation and
continued operation of a
floating geoduck nursery in
Spencer Cove.
The project, which will
add six 14-by-40-foot rafts
and a 360-foot log boom to
the company's existing geo-
duck nursery, has been a
source of conflict for shore-
line homeowners along
Case Inlet.
"I think that decision
was expected," said Curt
Puddicombe, vice president
of the Case Inlet Shoreline
Association, which pursued
and then dropped an ap-
peal last year against a Ma-
son County decision to al-
low the geoduck operation.
"There's no surprise there.
At this point, I don't think
there's much we can do."
The association, made
up of homeowners from
Allyn to Vaughn in Pierce
County, cited environmen-
tal reasons for pursuing
the appeal, but refocused
its efforts earlier this year
on the issue of aquatic tide-
land ownership.
The group hired a lawyer
to argue that Seattle Shell-
fish did not have geoduck
planted in Spencer Cove
prior to December 31, 2001
-- if true, the operation
would be illegal under state
law because that would
mean the company had
planted on lands reverted
to the state.
However, the state De-
partment of Natural Re-
sources (DNR), which man-
Journal photo by Aria Shephard
Homeowners along Case Inlet, as seen here from North Bay in Allyn,
have taken issue in the past with Seattle Shellfish geoduck operations in
Spencer Cove. The shellfish company recently received permit approval
from the LT.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a geoduck nursey expansion
in Spencer Cove.
ages aquatic lands, accept- structure," wrote Patricia Puddicombe said, but that
ed testimony from Seattle Graesser of the public af- at least the county did re-
Shellfish that geoduck had fairs office in the Seattle quire that the project un-
been planted before 2002. district of the Army Corps dergo five years of environ-
The permit from the in an e-mail. "The structure mental monitoring.
Army Corps was the last would be located approxi- "That was a good thing,
step for Seattle Shellfish to mately 270 feet offshore but I guess it certainly is a
expand its nursery, and run parallel to an ex- concern still because this is
~I"ne nursery is where isting intertidal geoduck the largest over-water float-
geoduck seed is grown out planting area." ing structure in Case Inlet,"
to a suitable planting size Mason County does not he said. "We'll see how that
and will replace an exist- regulate aquaculture asenvironmental monitoring
ing smaller floating raft heavily as other counties, goes."
your
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Page A-2 - Shelton-Mason County Journal -Thursday, June 23, 2011
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