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Rezone
Continued from page A-1
hazardous to health, not
just annoying.
"I could put up 100 air-
planes on a given weekend
and those 100 airplanes
would create a noise level
of 85 decibels," Dobson
said. "I could have that
happening every weekend
for a month and I'm still
under that 65 DNL aver-
age. That doesn't mean the
people living under that
are happy with that noise.
The FAA is concerned
about hazards to human
health, not incompatible
land use."
Goins said that the city
understands that noise
complaints are subjective,
but they need to have a
standard by which they
can determine how to use
the land.
"The big issue with noise
has been 'What is stan-
dard?" he said.
To solve this disagree-
ment about noise levels,
the growth board suggest-
ed a consultation process
between the city and avia-
tion community accord-
ing to guidelines set forth
by the Washington State
Department o'f Transpor-
tation: Aviation (WSDOT
Aviation).
"WSDOT Aviation has
formal consultation pro-
cess - we plan to follow
that process," Goins said.
"We thought we had suffi-
ciently covered that base."
Throughout the ear-
lier rezone talks, the city
maintained that they had
adequate consultations
with the aviation commu-
nity, while the port dis-
agreed.
"They (the growth board)
want true consultation to
take place ... I would not
just use the word consulta-
tion but true negotiation,"
Dobson said. "Hopefully
what we get is an under-
standing that some of that
property really isn't appro-
priate for residential."
Dobson said that only
59 or 60 acres of the entire
700-plus acre property are
in dispute.
He said that he and the
port would be willing to
work with the city to find
the best uses for the land.
While the board voted
against the city's proposal
to rezone the land, board
member William Roehl
voiced a dissenting opinion
in the report.
"Consultation does
equate with agreement,"
Roehl wrote. "It does not
appear tha~ additional
'consultation' would have
served any useful purpose."
The growth board voted
2-1 to invalidate the rezone
and city comprehensive
plan amendment.
The city has until Janu-
ary 13, 2012 to show com-
pliance with the board's
demands and their next
hearing is set for February
23.
The city is also currently
in an appeals process with
the Washington State Su-
perior Court.
Bird
Continued from page A-1
causes the far end of Oakland
bay to be regularly closed to
shellfish harvesters.
Levels of fecal coliform bac-
teria, measured in colonies per
hundred milliliters, skyrocket in
Oakland Bay over the summer,
Konovsky said.
"It can go from the single (dig-
its) to sometimes teens in the
winter and into the hundreds
and sometimes thousands in the
summer," he said. "It's not in-
tuitive, fecal coliform is usually
high in rainy winter weather."
While the study is necessary
to rule out the impact of birds
as a large source of the coliform
bacteria, Konovsky said that he
is skeptical that they are the
sole source of the problem.
"The reason I say I'm skepti-
cal is that Little Skookum Inlet
has a much larger bird popula-
tion than the upper end of Oak-
land Bay ... but Little Skookum
Inlet is one of the cleanest bodies
of water we've found," he said.
If birds do prove to be a large
contributor to the bacteria lev-
els, Konovsky said that the tribe
would do a more in-depth study.
Fecal coliform cannot mi-
grate on its own, it needs rain-
fall to move it from its point of
origin into the bay, which is why
it's so hard to find the source of
contamination, Konovsky said.
However, Oakland Bay's levels
of bacteria tend to peak in the
driest months of summer.
Konovsky said that this might
mean that bacteria doesn't need
to travel as far to get to the bay
as was previously thought.
"One theory is that the source
must be more local than we've
thought," he said.
Last summer the Squaxin
Tribe did an experiment to try
Journal photo by Natalie Johnson
Oakland Bay has been experiencing unusually high levels of fecal coliform bacteria
since 2005.
to replicate Oakland Bay in a
lab setting to see if the bacteria
might be reproducing right in
the bay during warm summer
months.
"I believe the bacteria are
probably replicating out there
because it's warmer," he said.
"Our experiments to date haven't
supported that theory."
In the lab, Konovsky said that
the bacteria died off after about
seven days in the water, but in
the bay the bacteria stay alive
for months.
Oakland Bay is a truly unique
body of water that is very diffi~
cult to replicate in a lab setting,
he said.
"It's the terminal estuary
of a terminal estuary - it's the
farthest inland estuary in the
Sound. The water in Oakland
Bay resides here for a long time,"
he said. "It's very sensitive to
low levels of pollution."
While summer levels of fecal
coliform are still high, Konovsky
said that they have gone down
from the "crisis" of 2005 and
2006.
"It'§ not nearly as bad as it
was," he said.
Journal photo by Natalie Johnson
City of Shelton Community and Economic Development Director Steve Goins
briefed the city commission Monday on delays associated with a project to repave K
Street.
K Street
Continued from page A-2
"K Street has been in fairly poor
shape for a while and has managed
to not deteriorate as rapidly as some
of our other streets- it's got to a cer-
tain point and just kind of stayed
there," Michael said. "I hope that it
could get through another season."
Michael said that delaying the
project until next year would not
put the city's chances to receive
funding in jeopardy.
Plant
Continued from page A-1
so we'll be basically doing
the same suite of testing,"
city engineer Mike Michael
said. "We'll have the ability
to chlorinate for a limited
period of time."
The city will also be ex-
tending the plants sewer
outfall pipe, which flushes
treated wastewater into
Hammersley Inlet, by 96
feet in the next few months.
Now that the new plant is
up and running, it will also
make use of a new slack tide
facility, which stores efflu-
ent water during low tide,
and releases it automatical-
ly when the tide comes in.
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Shelton-Mason County Journal -Thursday, July 28, 2011 - Page A-7