NORDLAND — Jefferson County Department of Community Development has made contact with the owners of all but 16 of 63 boats identified as moored in shellfish-rich but small Mystery Bay, which state health officials say is potentially “threatened” with pollution from the boats.
Al Scalf, director of Community Development, said Monday that 16 boat owners have not gotten back to his department after being contacted initially about a year ago.
In an April 9 letter to the state Department of Health Shellfish Program, Scalf said his department is nearing completion in its investigation “to determine circumstances and legal facts as to the installation of mooring buoys in Mystery Bay.”
63 buoys identified
Scalf said of the 63 buoys identified, 25 have legal permits with the county, seven are “grandfathered,” meaning they were in the bay before regulations existed, and five have been determined to be moored outside the bay. In addition, three are pending approval.
“Sixteen are not responding to our request for information,” Scalf said Monday at the county courthouse in Port Townsend.
Any illegally moored boats identified may have to be removed.
Scalf’s department recommends to the state Department of Health to “conditionally approve Mystery Bay in view of the satisfactory water quality tests for the bay.”
Boat owners sign affidavits
Scalf said Jake Johnson, Marrowstone Island Shellfish Co. manager, has 45 affidavits of those boat owners willing not to discharge waste into the bay. Johnson’s company is one of the oldest shellfish operations in the county and would be affected by a Mystery Bay closure in the worst-case scenario.
There are about 60 state-licensed buoys in the bay, county and state officials said.
Jefferson County Public Health officials have long said the water in Mystery Bay is healthy but so many boats are moored in the waterway that its future health may be at risk.
Mystery Bay remains on the Department of Health’s “threatened” list for 2009, but Bob Woolrich, manager of Growing Area Section in the Office of Shellfish and Water Protection for the state Department of Health, said the problem with an increasing number of boats moored in the small Marrowstone Island harbor may be resolved this year with Jefferson County’s help.
The state Department of Health has identified 16 other Western Washington harvest areas as being threatened with closure based on increasing pollutants. That is a slight improvement over the 17 threatened areas listed in 2008.
Each year, the agency reviews water quality and pollution conditions in each of Washington’s 102 classified commercial shellfish-growing areas. Areas that don’t meet stringent public health standards must be closed. Other areas with increased pollutant levels are listed as “threatened with closure.”
The listed sites are evaluated and watched by the agency and other stakeholders, such as Jefferson County Public Health. The “threatened” designation serves as an early warning and helps target pollution control.
The bay on the western shores of Marrowstone Island during summer months has been known to have more than 70 boats moored there.
Clallam County Department of Community Development last year was surveying the number of state Department of Natural Resources buoys being used, what boats were moored to them and who owns the boats.
There are seven shellfish licensees in Mystery Bay, three of which are tribal operations, Woolrich said.
Besides boats moored in the bay, others are docked at Mystery Bay State Park and private properties around the bay’s shores.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
