PORT TOWNSEND — Jefferson County commissioners have approved sending a letter to the state Department of Ecology saying they will allow fish- farming facilities off Jefferson County under a conditional-use permit process.
The move, decided Monday afternoon, clears the way to complete a shoreline management program update that was sent to the state in November 2010.
Ecology approved most of it in February 2011 except for a proposed ban on fin-fish aquaculture, which raises species such as Atlantic salmon in pens.
The state ruled that the county did not have the authority to forbid net pens but in July offered three possible solutions.
The county chose a conditional-use permitting process in which each application would go before a hearing examiner and be subject to a public hearing.
“I’m OK with it because it allows us to finalize our shoreline management plan,” Commissioner Phil Johnson, the most vocal on the panel in opposing net pen aquaculture, said Tuesday.
“I will find it very difficult to award a conditional-use permit,” Johnson said, “but I’m willing to listen to any argument.”
Johnson said he still “has a lot of questions” about the safety of the process, which holds large numbers of fish in a contained area for breeding purposes.
One of his biggest concerns is the dye used to give Atlantic salmon an orange hue, he said.
The county has not received any permit application for the construction of a net pen facility off Jefferson County shoreline, Department of Community Development Director Carl Smith said, though such farms are legal in the county now.
The closest in-water net pen fish farms are run by American Gold Seafoods, which has fish pens in Port Angeles and on Bainbridge Island, as well as on Cypress and Hope islands, and two hatcheries near Rochester.
A key issue is the potential spread of parasites and pollutants, according to County Administrator Philip Morley.
The fear is that parasites and pollutants from farms could affect wild fish.
Smith said some of the criteria likely to be included in a draft list for a conditional-use permit are:
— A fish farm could not be closer than 1,500 feet from shore.
— A fish farm would be prohibited in areas where the mean current velocity is less than 0.1 knot because current is needed to disperse feed or other pollutants.
— Feed would have to be in pellet, not liquid, form.
— Only chemicals approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration would be allowed.
— Fish farms would have to be a minimum distance from the mouth of any body of fresh water, such as rivers or creeks, where wild fish spawn.
— The proposed fish farm would have to be shown not to impede existing vessel traffic and would have to be a minimum distance from any recreational shellfish beaches as well as from docks and marinas.
Ecology had asked that the county give notice of its intended path toward completing the shoreline master program by Oct. 1, Morley said.
Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
