Jefferson County Commissioner Glen Huntingford, R-Chimacum, isn’t positive shellfish in the south part of Port Townsend Bay are threatened by pollution.
But he wants county officials to move quickly to make sure a suspected problem doesn’t become worse.
Last week, state Department of Health officials included a small portion of the bay, just off lower Port Hadlock, on a list of 20 areas where shellfishing is threatened.
Increased pollution, measured by the amount of bacteria found in the water, could cause state officials to close the area to commercial shellfishing.
“We don’t want a closure,” Huntingford told county officials during a Monday commissioners meeting.
A closure, according to Huntingford, could lead to forced designation of a shellfish protection district and assessment of additional taxes to help pay the cost of eliminating the pollution.
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The rest of the story appears in Tuesday’s Peninsula Daily News Jefferson County edition.
