PORT ANGELES — Clallam County has received a $1 million federal grant to update its shoreline planning document — and to lay the groundwork for other jurisdictions to follow suit.
The three county commissioners on Tuesday approved a $999,915 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to integrate the concept of “no net loss of ecological functions” for the state-mandated update to the county’s 18-year-old Shoreline Master Program.
Congratulations
John Miller, Clallam County Department of Community Development director, congratulated Planning Manager Steve Gray and Habitat Biologist Cathy Lear for negotiating the agreement with the EPA.
Gray, Lear and other county staffers will be heavily involved in a three-year effort to take inventory of 800 miles of marine and freshwater shorelines, and to incorporate public input and technical data to draft new regulations for shoreline uses.
“Other jurisdictions throughout Puget Sound are looking to us because this [grant] is going to help define no net loss, which is a requirement of the Shoreline Master Program updates,” Miller said.
Clallam County will administer the grant on behalf of two partner agencies — Jefferson County and the state Department of Ecology.
Shoreline programs are a requirement of the 1972 Shoreline Management Act, which is intended to “prevent the inherent harm in an uncoordinated and piecemeal development of the state’s shorelines,” Ecology officials say.
Stages in plans
While Clallam County is in the early phases of its Shoreline Master Program update — commissioners here approved a public participation strategy in March — Jefferson County adopted a shoreline plan last year and sent it to Ecology for review and approval.
“So the idea is that by getting this grant, we’ll have two jurisdictions that are in different places and come up with some best practices that can then be used throughout the basin,” said Clallam County Commissioner Steve Tharinger, who was appointed by the Puget Sound Partnership’s leadership council to represent the Strait of Juan de Fuca action area on the Ecosystem Coordination Board.
“I think this is really a good example of building partnerships within the basin to sort of control costs and be more effective on how to manage our shorelines.”
Tharinger said U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair, was “instrumental” in securing the EPA funds. Dicks represents the 6th Congressional District, which includes the North Olympic Peninsula.
“As an action area, this grant is a combination of Jefferson and Clallam County, and John Miller is right, a number of other jurisdictions within the Puget Sound basin are looking to us to answer some questions,” Tharinger said during Tuesday’s commissioners’ meeting.
“It speaks well to the Puget Sound Partnership and to our action area.”
Ecology requires all incorporated cities and all 39 counties to update their shoreline programs by 2014.
The other action areas of the partnership are San Juan/Whatcom, Whidbey, North Central Puget Sound, South Central Puget Sound, South Puget Sound and Hood Canal.
In receiving the grant, Tharinger said the Strait of Juan de Fuca action area demonstrated that the jurisdictions here can work together to implement the shoreline updates.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
