PORT ANGELES — Clallam and Jefferson counties have inked an agreement to improve their respective shoreline master plans.
The state-mandated updates to shoreline master programs are intended to achieve “no net loss” of ecological functions along shores.
Clallam County was awarded a $1 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to define and achieve no net loss and to that apply that knowledge to other jurisdictions in the Puget Sound basin.
Jefferson County and the state Department of Ecology are partners in the grant.
“Jefferson County has passed their shoreline master plan, and they are implementing it,” Clallam County Commissioner Steve Tharinger said Tuesday.
“We’re developing ours. So the idea of the grant is to see how the implementation works, and we can take that information and apply it to our adoption process.
“But the language, the no-net-loss language, we don’t have a choice. It’s in the state statute.”
All cities and 39 counties in Washington must update their shoreline plans by 2014.
Ecology must approve the updates. The state Supreme Court last week affirmed that the state, not local governments, has the final authority to approve shoreline management plans after a group of citizens sued Whatcom County and Ecology.
Sparked controversy
Shoreline plans have sparked controversy in some jurisdictions, including Jefferson County, because of buffer zones that restrict certain development near waterways.
Clallam County is in the midst of an exhaustive scientific survey of 800 miles of rivers, streams and marine shores.
The county has held a series of public forums on the preliminary results.
Clallam County is accepting public comment on shoreline inventory and characterization reports, which are available at www.clallam.net.
“There’s so much information there,” Clallam County Habitat biologist Cathy Lear said.
“We’ve been really excited about the response.”
Updated versions of the inventory and characterization reports are due out in October. They will focus on waters that drain into the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
“We’ll be doing another set of forums in the fall,” Lear said.
Sometime next year, Clallam County will move from the technical phase to a regulatory phase and begin to “talk about policies a little more specifically,” Lear said.
Jefferson County
Jefferson County commissioners approved a shoreline master plan in 2009.
In February, Ecology notified Jefferson County that it approved the plan on the condition that it reverse its ban on fin-fish farming.
Jefferson County Commissioner John Austin said county staff are revising the policy to restrict the practice without an outright ban.
The interlocal agreement between Clallam and Jefferson counties was approved unanimously by both three-member boards.
“What they [Jefferson County] will do is they’ll measure their indicators — for example, water quality,” Lear said.
As Jefferson County finds out how well its indicators of no net loss are working out, Clallam County will apply that information to its own shoreline plan.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
