PORT TOWNSEND — The debate about net pens has gone on for nearly a year, but the probability of installing such a facility in Jefferson County is slim, a county commissioner says.
“You look at Jefferson County and see how much shoreline we have, but there are very few places where you could put in a net pen,” said County Commissioner John Austin on Tuesday after a Monday meeting with representatives of the state Department of Ecology.
The county submitted its proposed updated Shoreline Management Plan to the state Department of Ecology in November 2010.
Most OK’d in February
Ecology approved most of the plan in February 2011 — except for the county’s ban of all fin-fish aquaculture, which raises fish, such as salmon, in pens.
Ecology ruled that the county did not have the authority to forbid net pens.
Since that time, the county and state have worked toward a compromise.
On Monday, the three commissioners and staff concerned with the matter met with five representatives of Ecology and one researcher from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, to discuss the next steps.
Ecology employees said they were only “there to listen” and that no decisions would be made on the spot.
The NOAA researcher augmented Ecology staff, said Brian Lund of Ecology.
“We do not have a raft of experts on staff, so when we want to learn something, we reach out to consultants,” he said.
“We reach out to the Department of Fish and Wildlife, to NOAA and to other agencies to gain the experience we need to make these decisions.
“Your role,” he told commissioners and county staff members, “is to provide the information to support your case, and then the determination is made whether the state will agree with you.”
‘Look statewide’
Laurie Levander of Ecology said: “Part of Ecology’s mission is to look statewide to see how all these SMPs add up so we don’t end up excluding business on a statewide basis.”
Nothing was resolved after the three-hour meeting, though county Associate Planner Michelle McConnell said the discussion was helpful because it opened the door for “staff-level” conversations in the future.
“We had some really great dialog,” McConnell said.
“It was good for the teams to have direct conversation with each other and determine if there are places in Jefferson County where it makes sense to have net pens.”
Now legal, but where?
Net pens are now legal in Jefferson County, though the county has not received a permit request since the early 1990s, McConnell said.
According to current statute, net pens must be situated two miles from critical streams, which rules out the Port Hadlock area, Austin said.
Discovery Bay does not fit into the state’s net pen qualifications created in 1986, and the area around Port Ludlow is residential, so net pens would not be permitted there.
Dabob Bay is a wildlife area and is used for Naval training exercises.
The area near the Port Townsend Paper Mill is in a barge path, as is the Hood Canal, which rules out those areas.
“It appeared to me that DOE is trying to identify places in the county where net pens would be practical and safe, but there aren’t many of those places,” Austin said.
During the meeting, Ecology shook the foundation of the county’s argument when a representative said the department regretted granting a conditional ban of net pens to Whatcom County, one that prohibits commercial net pens for farming salmon but allows some types of net pens.
The county was using the Whatcom ruling as a basis for its argument that the ban should be allowed.
During the meeting, County Commissioner Phil Johnson said Ecology “is against the ban because you don’t want us to set a precedent” while raising questions about pollutants.
Environmental impact
NOAA’s Michael Rust said net pens in some cases have less impact on the environment than standard fishing operations because they use less power and are powered by solar energy.
“Net pens have a smaller carbon footprint and are cheaper to offer than land-based fisheries,” he said.
“As far as waste products, the same goes in and out, and the feces of one animal becomes the food for another.”
Austin also raised questions about viruses, asking if diseases specific to the farmed salmon could harm local fish.
Johnson, who has pushed for the net pen ban, said the prohibition has its basis in pollution prevention.
“We once thought that the ocean could handle any amount of [carbon dioxide], but now we have oceans that are full of acidic water,” he said.
Moratorium
On Tuesday, Austin compared the net pen argument to the renewal of a moratorium on sexually oriented businesses, which is renewed every six months with no permanent action taken.
“We probably won’t ever have a sexually oriented business, but if one opened in a place where it was detrimental to the community, it would have been irresponsible if we didn’t have an intelligent way of controlling and regulating it,” he said.
“We may find that the best way to control net pens is through conditional-use permits.”
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
